White House promotes 'Trump TV' with an AI-altered photo

The White House has promoted “Trump TV” using an AI-altered photo of passengers apparently watching the president’s new streaming channel. But the image was originally posted online in February 2023, showing passengers watching the NFL Super Bowl, with one watching the film “Hitch”. The original photo was modified using AI to make it appear the passengers were watching Trump TV. The post did not disclose that the image had been altered. Vedika Bahl explains in Truth or Fake.

The image, shared across the White House’s X, Facebook and Instagram accounts, appears to show a packed aeroplane cabin with passengers seemingly tuning in to the president’s new channel on their seat-back screens.

“It’s what everybody is watching,” the White House said in the post, promoting what it described as another “HUGE week” of administration events and directing viewers to Trump TV.

But the photograph is not an authentic image of passengers watching the White House stream.

An analysis using OpenAI’s image-verification technology detected a SynthID watermark in the image, indicating that it had been generated or modified using an AI tool. A reverse-image search also led to the original photograph, which was posted online three years ago in February 2023.

The original image shows passengers watching the NFL’s Super Bowl LVII during a flight. One passenger appears to be watching the 2005 romantic comedy “Hitch”, starring Will Smith, rather than the game, with the original user making light of this in the post.

The White House version retains the original scene but changes what appears on the passengers’ screens, creating the impression that the entire cabin is watching Trump TV.

The White House did not disclose in its social media posts that the photograph - taken from a personal social media post - had been altered using AI and repurposed.

The image was used to promote Trump TV, which launched in September as a 24-hour YouTube stream featuring footage of Trump and other White House and administration events. The launch came amid the administration’s feud with several major news organisations, after Trump banned CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House.

The image also comes amid President Donald Trump’s recent comments about artificial intelligence. Trump has dismissed concerns about AI as a “hoax” and said on Truth Social that the "only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a strong and smart president."