AI mugshots of Donald Trump are already going viral

AI-generated mugshots of Donald Trump have gone viral following the former president’s Georgia indictment.

On Monday (14 August) Trump was indicted in Fulton County, Georgia on 13 charges that are related to allegations he tried to overturn the 2020 election result in the state. He has until 12 noon on 25 August to surrender himself.

Following news of the indictment, a fake mugshot image of the former president generated by artificial intelligence resurfaced and went viral on social media.

The picture was shared by the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, Michael Steele, on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Alongside the image, he wrote: “#Indicted. Over 80 times. And now indictments handed down in Georgia for a racketeering conspiracy to steal the 2020 election. This is the once and future nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States. Pathetic.”

The post has been viewed over 1.5 million times, though the image included was confirmed as fake by accompanying context written by other X users.

It said: “This photo is AI-Generated. The random, meaningless text in the background is a characteristic of AI.”

The same image went viral back in April after Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges of falsifying business records to hide alleged hush payments to a porn star.

With images of a fake Trump mugshot going viral, the Fulton County Sheriff, Pat Labat, confirmed that Trump would be treated the same as any other person, which will likely mean he will have to have a mugshot taken.

Labat said: “Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have mugshots ready for you.”

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