‘He’s just, like, an old guy’: Gen Z Democrats laugh at Donald Trump-Taylor Swift AI drama

CHICAGO – Former President Donald Trump made headlines Sunday when he reposted artificially-created images on his Truth Social account falsely suggesting he had the support of one of the world’s most famous and influential celebrities: Taylor Swift.

Gen Zers attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday greeted the news with wit and sarcasm – tempered by concern about the risks of artificial intelligence.

Swift endorsed Biden in the 2020 election, and her calls to her fans to register to vote have resulted in massive spikes in new registrations around the country. But the superstar has stayed out of the current presidential race.

Maya Luna, a 20-year-old from Connecticut who works on youth voter mobilization, said with a laugh the online saga is fresh evidence that the former president is a “lying a–hole.”

The fact the president’s campaign potentially mistook AI for reality makes it “even funnier,” Luna said.

“I don’t want to, like, empathize with Trump at all. … But there’s a chance he’s just, like, an old guy who thought it was real.”

Anica Czander, 28, thinks it raises an important policy issue.

“I think that we’re far overdue for some AI regulation,” Czander said. “I was concerned for the people who were believing it. … We need to have a way to protect people who aren’t as easily able to identify that sort of content.”

“It seems like a really good opportunity to bring that into the main political discourse,” she said, noting Swift is “known to be litigious.”

The image in question shows Swift dressed similarly to Uncle Sam and with the words ‘Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.’ Trump reposted the image with the words “I accept.”

The singer has not addressed the fake image. But the Trump campaign has doubled down.
Jenna Knupple, 26, said Swift’s endorsement would be a big deal since she has plenty of sway among young people. Many young people care more about celebrities than the actual issues, which concerns her if fans falsely believe that Trump has Swift’s endorsement.

“You might truly think this is real and maybe hop on a bandwagon just because you think that your favorite artist is in support of this. So I think it could potentially have some type of pull,” Knupple said. “We see that Swifties will do a lot of the things as they think Taylor Swift or what she has said.”

“I laugh because it’s so true,” agreed Elisa Calderon, 24, in a separate interview. “I feel like if Taylor were to endorse Harris, that would have a huge effect on the youth.”

Tyler Sykes, 19, said in addition to Swift, he could see the endorsement from one other major star having a similar impact and influence on young voters: Beyonce.

Beyonce has not indicated her support for any candidate so far, but she authorized Harris to use her song “Freedom” as her campaign theme song. That has raised speculation that her endorsement of Harris is imminent.