Former President Donald Trump claimed his opponent Kamala Harris is faking the size of her rally as she posted what he called an “AI-manipulated photo,” even though there is no evidence the photo was manipulated.
At issue is an image that emerged from a Harris-Walz rally at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Wednesday that shows a large crowd standing in front of Air Force Two, the vice president’s official plane.
Right-wingers have wrongly claimed that inconsistencies in the news photo reveal it was digitally manipulated, pointing to the lack of a reflection in the plane’s turbine.
Trump himself even addressed the issue on Sunday: claiming on its platform Truth Social that Harris ‘cleverly’ said.
“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport?” he wrote. “There was no one on the plane, and she “sneaked” it and showed a massive crowd of middle class supporters, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!”
Former President Donald Trump wrongly claimed that Harris’ campaign doctored a photo of the size of the crowd at her event in Detroit, Michigan.
The former president mocked his opponent on Truth Social by calling him a ‘cheater’
“It’s a TRAP. There was no one waiting for her and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people,” he continued. “The same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches.”
“This is how Democrats win elections,” Trump argued. “She should be disqualified because creating a false image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”
‘Anyone who does that is cheating at ANYTHING!’
Other Republicans have made similar claims: commentator Dinesh D’Souza told his followers to “check the reflection in the plane.”
“Does this look like a real picture to you?” he said. he asked on Saturday.
Another X user also stated that “if you look closely at the painting of the plane, you will notice that the crowd is not reflected in the painting.
“His audience is fake. His voters are fake. His marriage is fake. His political career is fake.” User X wrote.
At issue is a viral photo from the Harris-Walz rally at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Wednesday that right-wingers wrongly claimed was digitally manipulated, pointing out the lack of a reflection in the engines of Air Force Two.
But the size of the crowd at Harris’s rally was easily verified from videos of the event.
Snopes fact-checking website He also said Winston’s AI detector determined the image was “96 percent human,” meaning it was “likely photographed by someone and not created using an AI generation tool.”
In any case, Snopes’ findings indicate that “it is possible that the lighting, shadows or filtering (of the photograph) may have been digitally manipulated,” but not the photograph as a whole.
Spectrum News has Also determined “The crowd did indeed exist as the rally was attended by thousands of people, many of whom posted their own photos and videos of the event, which was also broadcast live on dozens of news channels and attended by a host of prominent politicians.”
Continued until Quote from the Michigan MLive Storewhich read: ‘About 15,000 people filled the hangar and the crowd spilled out onto the runway.’
Harris’ campaign has now hit back at the former president for spreading the baseless allegation.
‘1) This is a real photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan,’ the campaign posted on X.
‘2) Trump hasn’t campaigned in a key state in over a week… Low on energy?’
The false accusation comes as Vice President Kamala Harris begins to overtake Trump in the polls.
Harris campaign attacked Trump for spreading the baseless allegation
Trump’s claims that Harris was inflating the size of her rallies came amid a rough week for the former president, who is beginning to lose his advantage in base fervor and crowd sizes.
Democratic enthusiasm soared after Harris took over her 81-year-old boss’s campaign.
A new one New York Times and Siena College Survey shows Harris has a four-point lead among likely voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and the Cook Political Report has reset your grades Georgia, Arizona and Nevada are ‘in contention’, after having previously described them as ‘leaning towards the Republican Party’.
Another surprising poll shows more Americans trust Harris than the former president on the economy.
Trump’s stance on economic issues remained unchanged from July to August, with 41 percent approving of his handling of the economy, the report said. Financial Times/University of Michigan Ross School of Business Survey found.
Meanwhile, Harris has a 1-point lead, which is within the 3.1 percent margin of error of the Aug. 1-5 poll.
But Harris’ 42 percent approval rating among 1,001 registered voters is a whopping 7-point jump from Biden’s showing last month, where he earned just 35 percent.
A new poll shows Harris moving ahead of Trump on handling the economy, while Joe Biden repeatedly ranks below the former president.
Trump’s advisers are now urging him to adopt a new “forceful” rhetoric that would define Harris as liberal and weak, and to abandon his improvisation.
Advisers say the vice president will only increase her lead after the Democratic National Convention, especially if she is not attacked first. according to Axios.
Republicans close to the former president say a fresh approach is now needed to his messages, which they admitted could often be self-indulgent and rambling.
“President Trump knows he’s the only one who can end the media honeymoon with Kamala Harris, and he sees a significant opportunity to do so with Harris’s failure to defend her record on inflation and the border,” a source told Axios.
‘However, to overcome the media force field protecting Harris, she needs to be very specific with her policy contrasts and is planning to debut a hard-hitting stump speech very soon.’
DailyMail.com has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.