Millions of Americans took to the streets to protest the decline of the United States and its government Oct. 18. The protest was the largest in our nation’s history, amassing upwards of 7,200,000 attendees. Still, instead of immediately running to the news camera and trying to quell the unhappy crowds, President Donald Trump instead took to social media and crapped all over the demonstrations, literally. This would be funny if this were the first time, now it’s just weird.

“The president uses social media to make the point. You can argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that. “[The president] is using satire to make a point. He is not calling for the murder of his political opponents,” said Rep. Mike Johnson in a statement that he never thought he’d say.

In stark contrast to Johnson’s statement, I believe Trump is functionally illiterate in the context of social media, but what Trump’s public relations team specializes in is using generative AI to create the most offensive, incomprehensible, MAGA-brand slop they can make. 

As of now, there have been over 62 AI-generated propaganda pieces shared on his Truth Social since he started employing it in 2022. The generated AI ranges from offensive depictions of rivals, blatant misinformation to imagery that looks like it came out of a fever dream. 

While some may call this tactic “a clever use of a new, innovative marketing tool,” the depictions can actually have some serious ramifications. Trump shared an AI video depicting a Fox News segment on the existence of “Medbeds,” a sort of magic bed that supposedly cures all illnesses and ailments, Sept. 18 of this year. MedBed myths were perpetrated by QAnon followers and others who believed the “Deep State” had access to these advanced medical beds. 

This content may be easy to spot as phony to a trained eye, but comments and replies under the post reveal that most people took the video at face value and truly thought Trump had brought about a new era of medical innovation.

In addition to false claims and information, Trump also uses AI to create offensive narratives, inciting violence with videos of his opponents. There are too many videos to describe, but The New York Times compiled a list of the various AI propaganda posts Trump made. Of the 62, counting generated videos and images, 14 of them were negative or hurtful depictions of his opponents, such as a sombrero-wearing Hakeem Jefferies, which he created mere minutes after meeting with Jefferies and Sen. Chuck Schumer concerning the looming government shutdown.

 Trump has also made videos and images showing off the arrest of political rivals and adversaries, such as former President Barack Obama being taken down in the Oval Office and other democrats being “perp-walked”, former President Joe Biden awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Emperor Palpatine and even Speaker Nancy Pelosi discussing her terrible trades and lack of insider information. 

The latter seemed the most lifelike, even using AI audio tech to simulate the senator’s voice — a confusingly accurate depiction of Speaker Pelosi’s tone and voice. Clips like these can easily incite political unrest or even violence, as some struggle to discern the truth coming from Truth Social and keep up with the advancements of AI image generators. 

Come to think of it, though, maybe that’s the point.

Consider the fact that President Trump has numerous photos with Jeffrey Epstein, all of varying quality. It’s only a matter of time until someone begins producing fake photographs with easy-to-spot imperfections, thus giving the administration the ability to treat these photos as nothing more than pathetic, sloppy slander.

With enough convincing and advancements, people will slowly start assuming the same things we assume every time we see something made with AI: It’s nothing but slop, meant to be some twisted form of satire or storytelling.

Keep this theory in mind over the next four years: There’s probably a reason the U.S. government has been so lax with AI generation regulation, or why Trump has been employing its use so much. Follow the money and stay up-to-date not just on the news, but on new AI innovations, otherwise we may find ourselves in a world of both real and AI-rendered crap.