Former President Donald Trump claims his opponent Kamala Harris faked the size of her rally by posting what he calls an “AI-edited photo.” However, there is no evidence the photo was doctored.
The image emerged Wednesday during a Harris-Walz rally at Detroit Metro Airport, showing a large crowd gathered in front of Air Force Two, the vice president’s official aircraft.
Right-wing politicians are wrongly claiming that inconsistencies in the news photo indicate it has been digitally manipulated. They point to the lack of a reflection on the plane’s turbine.
But the size of the crowd was easily demonstrated by video footage of the event.
Still, Trump seized on the issue on Sunday, claiming on his Truth Social platform that Harris ‘AI’d’ it.
At issue is a viral photo of the Harris-Walz meeting at Detroit Metro Airport on Wednesday that right-wing politicians are falsely claiming was digitally manipulated to show the lack of a reflection on Air Force Two’s turbines.
‘Did anyone notice Kamala CHEATING at the airport?’ he wrote. ‘There was no one on the plane, and she “AI’d” it, showing a huge “crowd” of so-called followers, BUT THEY DID NOT EXIST!’
“She’s a CHEAT. She had NO ONE waiting and the “crowd” seemed like 10,000 people!” he continued. “The same thing happens with her fake “crowd” at her speeches.”
“This is how Democrats win elections,” Trump argued. “She should be disqualified because creating a false image is ELECTION INTRUSION.”
“Anyone who does that is cheating on EVERYTHING!”
Other Republicans have made similar claims. Commentator Dinesh D’Souza, for example, told his followers to “check the reflection on the plane.”
“Does this look like a real photo to you?” he said I asked on Saturday.
Another X user also claimed that ‘if you look closely at the paint job on the plane, you’ll notice that the crowd of people isn’t reflected in the paint.
‘Her audience is fake. Her voters are fake. Her marriage is fake. Her political career is fake,’ wrote the X user.
Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that Harris’ campaign doctored a photo of her crowd in Detroit, Michigan
The former president mocked his opponent on Truth Social as a ‘fraud’
But the size of the crowd at the Harris rally was easily demonstrated by videos of the event.
Fact-checking website Snopes also said that Winston AI Detector determined that the image was “96 percent human,” meaning the image was “likely photographed by someone and not created by an AI generation tool.”
At the very least, Snopes’ findings indicate that “it is possible that [the photograph’s] Exposure, shadows and filters were digitally manipulated, but not the photo as a whole.
Spectrum News has also determined ‘The crowd was there and the rally was attended by thousands of people, many of whom posted photos and videos of the event themselves. The rally was also livestreamed by dozens of news channels and was attended by a large number of leading politicians.’
It continued with quote michigan outlet MLivewhich read: ‘About 15,000 people filled the hangar, the crowd spilling onto the platform.’
Getty Images photographer Andrew Harnick has also defended his photo.
“It was a huge crowd, and the photos I took that are on the Getty website are testament to that,” he says. told the Daily Beast.
The false accusation comes as Vice President Kamala Harris begins to overtake Trump in the polls
Harnick explained that he used a zoom lens, which allowed him to make objects appear closer than they actually were.
“The plane is actually quite far from the crowd,” he said, stressing that he has been writing about politics for decades and shows no bias whatsoever.
“We keep our opinions to ourselves and only capture what we see,” Harnick said of photographers.
Harris’ campaign has now criticized the former president for spreading this baseless accusation.
“1) This is an actual photo of a crowd of 15,000 people for Harris-Walz in Michigan,” the campaign posted on X.
‘2) Trump hasn’t campaigned in a swing state in over a week… Low energy?’
Harris’ campaign slammed Trump for spreading the baseless accusation
Trump’s claims that Harris was exaggerating the size of her rallies came as the former president has had a bad week, as he begins to lose his edge in terms of fanaticism among supporters and crowd size.
Enthusiasm among Democrats soared after Harris took over the campaign from her 81-year-old boss.
A new one New York Times and Siena College Poll shows Harris up four points among likely voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and the Cook Political Report has reset his ratings to ‘toss-up’ for Georgia, Arizona and Nevada – after previously rating them as ‘leaning Republican’,
Another shocking survey shows more Americans trust Harris than the former president when it comes to the economy.
Trump’s position on economic issues remained unchanged from July to August, with 41 percent approving of his approach, Financial Times/University of Michigan Ross School of Business Survey found.
Meanwhile, Harris holds a 1-point lead, well within the 3.1 percent margin of error from the Aug. 1-5 poll.
But Harris’ 42 percent approval rating among 1,001 registered voters is a whopping 7 percentage point jump from Biden’s results last month, when he was at just 35 percent.
New poll shows Harris moving ahead of Trump on handling the economy, while Joe Biden is repeatedly ranked lower than the former president
Trump’s advisers are now pleading with him to adopt a new, “tough” campaign speech that portrays Harris as liberal and weak — and to refrain from his improvisations.
The advisers say the vice president will only increase her lead after the Democratic National Convention, especially if they don’t attack her first, according to Axios.
Republicans close to the former president say he needs to reframe his messages, which they admit are often self-serving and muddled.
“President Trump knows he is the only one who can end the media’s honeymoon with Kamala Harris, and he sees a significant opportunity to do so given Harris’ failure to defend her record on inflation and the border,” a source told Axios.
“However, to protect Harris from the media, he will have to be very specific about his policy contrasts and he plans to deliver a powerful campaign speech soon.”
DailyMail.com has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
