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Story · August 7, 2024

Trump wrongly claimed a Detroit rally photo was AI-generated

By The Daily Fuckup Newsroom · From The Daily Fuckup: August 7, 2024

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Correction: Correction: The Detroit rally photo was a real image from the Aug. 7 event, and Trump’s AI claim on Aug. 11 was false.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz held a rally at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport on Aug. 7, 2024, and images from the event showed a packed crowd on the tarmac. Local coverage at the time described strong turnout, and the photo later targeted by Trump came from that same rally scene.

The false claim came four days later. On Aug. 11, Trump wrote that the Harris campaign had used artificial intelligence to fake the crowd and implied the people in the picture were not real. Reporting from CBS News later checked the original file and metadata and compared the image with other photos and video from the rally. That review found no sign the photo was AI-generated or digitally manipulated.

PolitiFact and FactCheck.org also concluded that Trump’s allegation was baseless and that the image came from the Aug. 7 rally. The point here is simple: there was a real crowd in Detroit, and the photo Trump attacked was a real photo of that event.

The timeline matters. Harris held the rally first. Trump’s AI claim came later. And the evidence supports the crowd, not the conspiracy.

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