Former U.S. President Donald Trump triggered a social media attack for promoting AI-generated photos to give a false impression that he had secured Taylor Swift’s backing.

Ms Swift, who has won multiple Grammy awards, endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 but has not backed any other candidate since then.

Over the weekend, Mr Trump shared images of female Swifties –a collective name for Ms Swift’s fans– donning T-shirts saying, “Swifties for Trump.” Another doctored image showed the singer with an inscription that said, “Taylor Swift Wants You To Vote For Donald Trump.” 

The Republican candidate captioned the AI photos “I accept!” to communicate his approval despite knowing the pictures were deepfakes.

The images were first shared on Twitter, now X, from accounts known to peddle false information.

The deepfakes have attracted the ire of Swifties and mockery of Democrats, one of whom said Mr Trump “poked the eyes of Swifties” who could ruin his election chances.

“This genius, over the weekend, decided to poke the eyes of Swifties and suggest that Taylor Swift is endorsing him,” said Eric Swalwell of California, a Democrat representative. “They are going to have a marvellous time ruining everything for Donald Trump over the next 78 days.” 

“We do not represent every Swiftie, but I think there is a reason we don’t need AI to show our support for Kamala,” Wired cited Irene Kim, cofounder of Swifties4Harris, as saying.

Ms Swift had rebuked Mr Trump when some police officers in Minneapolis murdered George Floyd, a crime that sparked demonstrations across the U.S.

“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?” the pop star tweeted in 2020. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November.”