Description: A fabricated image purporting to show U.S. President Donald Trump using a walker reportedly circulated widely on social media in mid-December 2025. Fact-checkers determined the image was AI-generated, citing visual anomalies and detection of Google's SynthID watermark. The image reportedly spread across multiple platforms and was shared by a political strategist, prompting public confusion and debunking by news outlets and AI detection tools.
Editor Notes: While reporting attributes the posting of this purportedly AI-altered image to Keith Edwards, it remains unknown whether he created it. Therefore, we are attributing the deployers to both Keith Edwards and unknown actors.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Google developed an AI system deployed by Keith Edwards and Unknown actors, which harmed Donald Trump , Epistemic integrity and General public.
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1302
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2025-12-11
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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NEEDHAM, Mass. ---
A deepfake image of President Donald Trump that received millions of views on social media is the latest large-scale example of how generative artificial intelligence can be used to create falsehoods that grab and divert …
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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