The use of fabricated photo-realistic imagery, or what we now call deepfakes, for political purposes is nothing new. Political actors have manipulated images since the 19th century. But we take a look at the committee founded by Elon Musk which $400 million funding messaging that contributed to misinformation in the US midterms.
Trumps use of AI and deepfakes in the midterms
If you were to look at the social media profile of a national leader, let’s say your country’s President, what would you expect to see?
You would probably want to see information about current and upcoming government policies or maybe updates on a breaking story of national significance. You would want it to be presented with complete clarity and purpose.
But that's not the case looking at the American Presidents social media which has been widely criticised since he announced his candidacy for US President on June 16, 2015.
In fact, in one day alone during the midterms he posted to social media platform, Truth, 64 times. On 6 September following the U.S. military attacked Iran’s oil tankers in Kuhestrak – Trump posted a series of AI generated dystopian images.
Of the 64 posts that were shared on 6 September Subtext estimates at least 34 contain visuals created with AI. They include:
- Him as wrestler Hulk Hogan.
- Himself meeting George Washington meeting in the Oval Office.
- Himself and George Washington as an oil painting during the Revolutionary War.
- A graphic of the Titanic sinking, with the slogan “Democratic Party”.
- A picture of actor Robert De Niro holding a “Trump is My President” t-shirt which he captioned: “Even this jerk is beginning to get it!”
The most bizarre show Donald Trump in a dystopian sci-fi world. The image shows an army of futuristic soldiers and robot spider-like droids marching away from the Capitol, with the phrase: "They will never sleep again". It was quickly followed by another post of Trump on a mechanical throne, surrounded by burning buildings with the slogan: "Give them nightmares".
The bizarre nature and volume of posts indicate that Trump uses AI to create a visceral emotional response: fear. The subtext of the messaging is simple: He is saying that without him, America is heading towards catastrophe.
Elon's America PAC funded attack ads
Elon Musk founded an Independent committee in expenditure-only political action committee in 2024. The America PAC finances voter contact, canvasses operations, and independent expenditures supporting Republican candidates.
The American PAC represents 280 advertising campaigns, utilizing both graphics and video, across September, with some campaigns using repeated adverts. The visuals are created using AI, most likely Grok – owned by Musk.
In just September, the month that Subtext looked into their polticial advertising campaign, America PAC, has spent a minimum of $1.5 m on Meta advertising across Facebook and Instagram.
The exact amount is difficult to verify because Meta removes the spend amount for inactive adverts, of which there are 38 across September.
The adverts are centred around culture war social issues, most notably trans rights - with messaging focusing on that issue accounting for at least 38%, or $400,000 in spending.
In one AI created attack ad against Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, which America PAC paid $15-20k for and reached a reported 1m Meta accounts with, shows a supposed trans woman in drag dunking a basketball in a game against biological women.
The voiceover, delivered in the style of a horror-film trailer, claims that Talarico voted for: “biological men to play in women’s sports.” The video claims Talarico has a ‘radical trans agenda’ and finishes with the slogan: “Not fair. Not safe. Not Texas.” The America PAC spent between $15K – $20K on promoting the ad which reached approximately 1m people.
Ohio senate candidate Sherrod Brown was the subject of a similar AI attack ad. It describes him as representing the “trans agenda of socialism.” It alleges supporting “taxpayer funder sex changes for kids,” and depicting prominent left wing politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez next to drag queen. The ad had between $45k-$50K spent on its promotion.
The adverts are not only meant to misrepresent the views of their political opponents, for gain, but the subtext of them is meant to trigger an emotional reaction or insight fear and deepening cultural divides.
No major Democratic candidate who ran for office in the mid-term elections supports gender identity-based surgery for minors. In fact, a 2025 study showed that less than 0.1% of Americans under the age of 18 have received puberty blockers or surgery.
Yet for the millions of voters exposed to these adverts, the message they are receiving is clear. The America PAC, Trump and the wider MAGA movement are not simply telling voters to fear a progressive future. They are using AI to visualise that future in increasingly vivid and emotionally persuasive ways.
The political significance of AI may therefore lie not in its ability to convincingly fake reality, but in its ability to build alternative realities at scale. Rather than arguing that disaster is coming, political actors can now generate photo-realistic visions of that disaster and place them directly into voters' feeds.