LOS ANGELES: Former President Donald Trump has posted a fake social media image of pop superstar Taylor Swift asking people to vote for him in the November election.
A Sunday entry by the Republican candidate on Truth Social showed Swift dressed in red, white and blue with a caption that said “Taylor Swift Wants You To Vote For Donald Trump.”
“I accept!” Trump wrote.
Swift has not publicly endorsed a candidate in the 2024 race but has supported Democrats in the past.
The singer backed President Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris in 2020. Harris is set to be formally nominated as the 2024 Democratic candidate at the party’s national convention in Chicago this week. She also criticized Trump in a 2020 documentary.
Spokespeople for Swift and Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump also posted photos of young women wearing “Swifties for Trump” shirts, and a satirical article with the headline “Swifties Turning to Trump After Daesh Foiled Taylor Swift Concert.” The article was marked “SATIRE” above the headline.
Swift canceled three shows in Vienna this month after authorities said they had foiled a planned attack. Local officials arrested a 19-year-old man who they said was inspired by Islamic State.
Several Swift fans and watchdog groups said many of the images posted by Trump appeared to be deepfakes generated by artificial intelligence.
Advocates in the music industry, Hollywood and Washington have been pushing for federal legislation and other measures to fight the explosion of fake AI images online.
Trump’s post was “yet another example of AI’s power to create misinformation,” consumer group Public Citizen said.
“The potential harms to our society that could result from such misinformation, including abuses of our elections, are wide-reaching and immensely damaging,” the group added.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Swift fan Rebecca Goff handed out friendship bracelets, a common practice among the singer’s fans, at a Nevada Democratic Party breakfast.
Goff, 39, said she felt Trump was the antithesis of what she believes Swift stands for, including celebrating girlhood and womanhood. “That’s like the antithesis of what Trump and the GOP are trying to do, especially to women. They’re trying to make us smaller. They want us to go back to being just housewives, child bearers,” Goff said.
Trump posts image of fake Taylor Swift endorsement
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Trump posts image of fake Taylor Swift endorsement
- Trump also posted photos of young women wearing “Swifties for Trump” shirts, and a satirical article with the headline “Swifties Turning to Trump After Daesh Foiled Taylor Swift Concert”
Uganda army denies seizing opposition leader as vote result looms
- Election day was marred by significant technical problems after biometric machines
- There were also reports of violence against the opposition in other parts of the country
KAMPALA: Uganda’s army denied claims on Saturday that opposition leader Bobi Wine had been abducted from his home, as counting continued in an election marred by reports of at least 10 deaths amid an Internet blackout.
President Yoweri Museveni, 81, looked set to be declared winner and extend his 40-year rule later on Saturday, with a commanding lead against Wine, a former singer turned politician.
Wine said Friday that he was under house arrest, and his party later wrote on X that he had been “forcibly taken” by an army helicopter from his compound.
The army denied that claim.
“The rumors of his so-called arrest are baseless and unfounded,” army spokesman Chris Magezi told AFP.
“They are designed to incite his supporters into acts of violence,” he added.
AFP journalists said the situation was calm outside Wine’s residence early Saturday, but they were unable to contact members of the party due to continued communications interruptions.
A nearby stall-owner, 29-year-old Prince Jerard, said he heard a drone and helicopter at the home the previous night, with a heavy security presence.
“Many people have left (the area),” he said. “We have a lot of fear.”
With more than 80 percent of votes counted on Friday, Museveni was leading on 73.7 percent to Wine’s 22.7, the Electoral Commission said.
Final results were due around 1300 GMT on Saturday.
Wine, 43, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has emerged as the main challenger to Museveni in recent years, styling himself the “ghetto president” after the slum areas where he grew up in the capital, Kampala.
He has accused the government of “massive ballot stuffing” and attacking several of his party officials under cover of the Internet blackout, which was imposed ahead of Thursday’s polls and remained in place on Saturday.
His claims could not be independently verified, but the United Nations rights office said last week that the elections were taking place in an environment marked by “widespread repression and intimidation” against the opposition.
- Reports of violence -
Analysts have long viewed the election as a formality.
Museveni, a former guerrilla fighter who seized power in 1986, has total control over the state and security apparatus, and has ruthlessly crushed any challenger during his rule.
Election day was marred by significant technical problems after biometric machines — used to confirm voters’ identities — malfunctioned and ballot papers were undelivered for several hours in many areas.
There were reports of violence against the opposition in other parts of the country.
Muwanga Kivumbi, member of parliament for Wine’s party in the Butambala area of central Uganda, told AFP’s Nairobi office by phone that security forces had killed 10 of his campaign agents after storming his home.
