Taylor Swift Slammed Viral AI Image Showing Her ‘Supporting’ Trump. Here’s Where It Came From.

The AI-generated image of Taylor Swift endorsing Donald Trump, which the singer says inspired her to endorse Kamala Harris for president this week, comes from an unlikely place.

The image, which sparked controversy in August after it was shared by the former president on Truth Social, first circulated with the caption “Taylor wants you to vote for Joe Biden” and was posted to a pro-Biden Facebook group with just 8,000 members in December 2023. That post was viewed by NBC News. A reverse image search by NBC News did not find any previous incidents of the image being posted online.

After the pro-Biden image of Swift being generated by AI was first posted on Facebook, it began circulating on the pro-Biden internet, particularly among Gen Xers and baby boomers who supported the then-candidate. The Facebook group where it was originally posted is largely a place where Democrats share memes and information in support of Biden and against Trump.

The image was also shared on X and Instagram’s messaging platform Threads. SE Hinton, author of “The Outsiders,” shared it on X in December. It was posted to a liberal subreddit the same month.

“I’m a baby boomer for Biden,” read the caption of an X-rated post of the image in January.

The creator of the image, a Democrat, asked NBC News to keep his identity private, wanting to avoid any backlash. Inspired by Swift’s support for Biden in 2020, he said he used a generative AI platform to create an image from the text “Taylor Swift as Uncle Sam,” then used Photoshop to add text on top.

On August 17, about nine months after it was posted with the pro-Biden text, a pro-Trump X account with more than 340,000 followers posted an edited version that read, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” The X account did not respond to a request for comment on whether it had edited the image itself or where it came from. The next day, Trump posted a screenshot of the X message on his Truth Social account with the caption, “I agree!”

“I woke up one morning and got a text from someone who sent me a picture of the edited version and was like, ‘Was that you?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s an edited version of my original,’” the person who created the AI ​​image of Swift endorsing Biden told NBC News in a phone interview. “I didn’t really pay attention to it until I sat down and started watching the news. It just started blowing up from there, with people saying Taylor might sue him, and I was like, ‘Holy crap, what have I done?’”

On Tuesday, after the Trump-Harris presidential debate, Swift posted a message of support for Harris on Instagram. In the caption, she cited the AI-generated image Trump posted as one of the reasons she wanted to make her stance public.

“I recently learned that an AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump for president was posted on his website. This really reignited my fears about AI and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” Swift wrote. “It led me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my real plans for this election as a voter. The easiest way to combat misinformation is to tell the truth.”

Swift included a link to the official voter registration website in her Instagram story announcing her support. Within 24 hours, more than 400,000 people had clicked on the link from her account.

“I agree with Taylor that AI, when used by malicious actors, can be a danger to democracy,” the AI ​​image creator said. “If it leads to stricter regulation, I will not only be happy to comply, but I will also be happy that it makes the world a safer place.”

The AI ​​image maker, an artist, said he began experimenting with AI to keep up with technological advances that he saw as a threat to his career. He said he realized it could be a useful way to create political satire.

His public Facebook group is where he posts content in support of Democrats, starting with Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and now in support of Harris’ presidential campaign.

“I didn’t think it would happen like this,” he said. “The goal was to build support for Joe Biden because his PR was bad and his poll numbers were low and Trump was an imminent threat and I just couldn’t sit back and do nothing.”