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22nd March 2023
03:19pm GMT
AI-generated pictures imagining how Donald Trump would be arrested by police have been shared online, sparking hilarity.
Trump is facing a possible indictment this week in connection with hush money payments during his 2016 campaign to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
Now, fabricated images have been shared on Twitter showing Trump resisting police officers as they attempt to restrain him.
Some images fabricated scenarios where the 45th president is seen struggling to run away from the officers.
The pictures were shared by Eliot Higgins, founder of investigative collective Bellingcat. Higgins's tweet has been viewed almost 5 million times, with many other accounts sharing the images as well.
Higgins told the Associated Press that he shared the deepfake images to highlight "both how good and bad Midjourney was at rendering real scenes."
He pointed out that in one picture, Trump has three legs and a police belt.
He continued: “I had assumed that people would realise Donald Trump has two legs, not three, but that appears not to have stopped some people passing them off as genuine, which highlights that lack of critical thinking skills in our educational system.”
Trump is preparing for a possible indictment in connection with the investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney and has called for protests.
In a social media post last week, the former president said the “leading Republican candidate and former president of the United States will be arrested on Tuesday of next week.”
“Protest, take our nation back,” he wrote.
The possible indictment against Trump concerns a long-standing investigating into hush money involving Stormy Daniels.
Trump is under investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for his company recording as legal expenses a reimbursement to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen for $130,000 he gave to Daniels before the 2016 election to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter. Trump denies having sex with the porn star.
The misdemeanour could be to do with how the payments were recorded.
When Trump reimbursed Cohen, the record for the payment says it was for legal fees. Prosecutors say this amounts to Trump falsifying business records, which is a criminal offence in New York.
They could also allege that this broke election law because the motivation to disguise the payments was for voters to not know her had an affair with Daniels.
Any indictment of Trump, who is running for reelection in 2024, would mark a historic first and quickly change the political conversation around an already divisive figure.
According to a report by WNBC, Trump will surrender to face charges if officials go ahead with the plan.
His lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, told WNBC that his client will “follow normal procedures if it gets to that point.”
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