• Skua@kbin.earth
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    4 months ago

    This feels like a very foolish move. I do not know the relevant law at all, but surely it’s some kind of illegal to falsely use someone’s face to claim their political endorsement? And it’s not like Taylor Swift is somehow lacking in either the financial clout to sue over it or the PR clout to turn it around

    If this fucking walloper wants to ruin his own campaign then that’s more than fine by me. I’m just surprised by what seems like such an obviously poor move

    • g0zer@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Honestly, poor political moves seem to be all the man is capable of. And his base (unfortunately) always seems to have just enough cognitive dissonance to eat it up and pivot/shift the goalposts.

      More and more, I come to the conclusion that the only way forward is to stop fighting them, and instead focus on strengthening us.

      The one thing MAGA republicans have in spades is a sense of unity and community, which is something we on the left need to foster (instead of infighting and segmentation).

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      That’s his superpower. No matter how low your opinion of him gets he can always find a way to surprise you with how shitty he can be.

    • smokebuddy [he/him]@lemmy.today
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      4 months ago

      From what I understand, Taylor Swift was offered big time FTX money but her parents are competent legal professionals who reviewed the contract, recognized that SBF was selling dangerous unregistered securities, and advised to stay the fuck away from that shit. I think she may have been the only celebrity who avoided that dump truck of money to protect her fans and her brand.

      Not someone I’d fuck around with. (also remember when Evermore theme park tried suing lol)

    • zephorah@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      All true but there is likely a portion of his base who follows nothing regarding Taylor Swift, only passively knowing who she is.

      (That’s me, and I’m not part of his base. I give zero fucks about Taylor Swift. Everything I know about her is through passive acquisition.)

      They’re not going to care enough about her to hear the retraction. If anything it’ll be some vague thought that even liberal star elites like their guy with no follow up.

    • ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      If I was an attorney for Taylor Swift, I might argue that the campaign needs to have their assets frozen because who knows what other fraudulent or illegal activity the campaign could be engaging in. Guys like trump do this type of thing because their expectation is that they’ll get away with it.

    • MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      And as we all know… Swifties sure love commenting on Truth Social.

      🙄

      This dude is just so, so desperate. Future historians will have to go through all this garbage.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      This is one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen. I still cannot believe a massive cult of dimwits worships this loser.

    • frunch@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      This is exactly what bullshit like Grok is here for. Stupid easy to make, stupid easy to spread. Why try any harder when your target is stupid people ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 months ago

      I’m surprised I haven’t seen any “trump for Harris” generated images yet in this thread. Maybe with a news article about Trump finding Trump’s VP pick weird and how he can’t stand Trump rambling about Trump, low energy, something something.

      • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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        4 months ago

        I saw a cursed image yesterday. Kamala heavily pregnant, with Don looking down hand on belly, like you do when trying to feel the baby kicking.

      • dactylotheca@suppo.fi
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        4 months ago

        I’m surprised I haven’t seen any “trump for Harris” generated images yet in this thread.

        It’d mean having to give money to Musk

    • pastabatman@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The uncle Sam image is clearly AI, but the pictures with people in “Swifties for Trump” shirts look real. But there is a “satire” tag on one of them…

      Either he believes the images are real, or he knows they are fake and is trying to meme a little. Either way he is a moron. If this forces Taylor’s hand to either disavow Trump or just straight endorse Harris, he’s cooked.

      • Reyali@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        The blonde girl with a ponytail in the top right and bottom right look like real photos from a rally. The other photos of groups of people with the “Swifties for Trump” shirts all have the plastic sheen and soft background that’s indicative of AI. If you start zooming in there are little oddities here and there that also make them look generated.

        So I’ll buy there is one girl out there with her own shirt who got photographed twice at the same event, but I don’t believe any of these other photos for a second.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Another lawsuit to take away the last of the money he might have. He’s clearly burning all bridges and preparing to bug off to Russia, NK, or Chyyyyna.

  • N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    Using AI to take away a woman’s agency and force an image of her to do what you want?

    Trump feels free to do it and to do it publicly. It’s weird as all hell.

  • Minarble@aussie.zone
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    4 months ago

    This is hilarious he is going to force a Swift - Harris endorsement where she might have remained silent

    • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Exactly this. If Taylor swift gets the swifties to the polls it’s game over.

      And he might get sued as well which would be the cherry on top

      • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I mean I would be stunned if this doesn’t result in a lawsuit of some form. This is a pretty messed up (and unbelievably dumb) thing to do.

    • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I wouldn’t be surprised if this part of their “big plan” to deal with her. The Trump campaign is scared shitless of her, and blame her for motivating young voters as one of the reasons they lost 2020.

      Not too smart, but not much they do is.

  • ALQ@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    There’d better be a Swift response.

    ^^^Sorry ^^^not ^^^sorry.

    • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      They figured out that lawsuits take longer than the election news cycle, so they can get away with the misinformation long enough for their purposes. Even if they were to get a C&D order quickly, it may have reached enough people that matter to them, and by the time they get any actual consequences the election is probably over.

      • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Sure, but lawsuits are not her only recourse. She could actively endorse Kamala, for instance, and that would be terrible for Trump.

        • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
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          4 months ago

          Maybe it would, but there’s a chance that, given contradictory info, people pick and choose what they want to believe and all she’ll really do is neutralise the effect. There will also be some set of people that the first ad reaches but the second doesn’t. For some people, it will just undermine their faith in “the media” - “can’t believe anything these days” - which also may play into the hands of those thriving on deception and misinformation.

          All in all, it’s a gamble, but I’m not confident that it will be a net loss for them.

          • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Sure, anything could happen. I think Taylor Swift has enough money and reach to make herself heard if she really wants, in a way that leaves no doubt. Yes, people will pick and choose, but if they’re choosing to believe Taylor Swift supports Trump, they aren’t dealing with reality anyway. Those people were going to vote for Trump no matter what because they look for every little sign of support for Trump, no matter how ludicrous it is.

    • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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      4 months ago

      because it’s been like… a second

      there very well might be consequences- taylor swift probably isn’t too pleased, and she has the money to sue… but law suits take time

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The fans will be the consequence. He stepped in something that’s not just a lawsuit he can delay. He just pissed off all the Swifties who are very aware of her repudiation of the GOP and Trump. He may have just sent the DNC thousands of new volunteers.

    • aseriesoftubes@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Forget the Swifties. Don’t mess with Taylor herself. Donald has stepped in it, and now Taylor is all but required to correct the record.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      There’s a certain irony in sending out your VP to call any woman without the requisite 2.3 kids a “cat lady”, then turn around and announce to a credulous base that America’s most famous cat lady just gave you her endorsement.

  • catbum@lemmy.world
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    I feel like I’m stating the obvious here, but this seems so off-the-charts guaranteed to backfire on him. What even mild Swiftie isn’t going to figure out (or hasn’t already) just how fake this endorsement is? Of any celeb to fake, Taylor seems like a such a flamingly dumb choice in terms of the fandom’s social media engagement.

    With all these increasingly stupid moves… Is he really that detached and senile, or is there more behind his [team’s] style of psycho-political warfare going on?

    I don’t think I’ve seen it pondered anywhere on social media, so I must ask: Does it not seem like Trump is purposely trying to throw the election at this point? If that’s the case, I fear the heightened degree of nefarious intent for whatever guaranteed political unrest we will face in November. I don’t think this is baseless conspiratorial thinking on my part, unfortunately.

    Or … Or … Maybe his patently obvious mental decline has eroded away just enough of his super-sized ego to let in juuust enough reality for him to consciously recognize that he is going to die soon whether he likes it or not, and now he doesn’t give a shit-a-minute if he wins anymore. Can you imagine?

    • Coelacanth@feddit.nu
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      4 months ago

      I don’t think he’s trying to throw the election. I think he’s a tired old man struggling as he’s faced with a crowd increasingly tired of a schtick he’s been running for almost a decade. I’ve said it before but I think people want new material, and he’s too old and set in his ways to reinvent himself. He’s tossing out the same old classics, but they’re not hitting like they were in 2016, and it vexes him. And this is not the first time it happened, either. I didn’t know this, but it was pointed out that after the first hit season ratings of “The Apprentice” quickly plummeted over the years. Trump struggles to keep interest once the novelty value wears off.

      On top of that, yes, he is clearly and obviously deteriorating mentally and it’s a huge indictment to the media that nobody is giving that the same attention they gave Biden’s decline. Even MSNBC (who’s openly anti Trump) isn’t really focusing enough on his cognitive decline.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        On top of that, yes, he is clearly and obviously deteriorating mentally and it’s a huge indictment to the media that nobody is giving that the same attention they gave Biden’s decline. Even MSNBC (who’s openly anti Trump) isn’t really focusing enough on his cognitive decline.

        People should be more concerned about his vice presidential choice than they were McCain’s. There is a high likelihood that the oldest nominated candidate from a major party will not survive his entire term and it’ll be president JD power & associates.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Think back to Hillary Clinton.

      Unfortunately (or not in this case) it’s entirely possible to just flub a candidacy.

    • LeadersAtWork@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I’ve been waiting for Taylor Swift to jump in. Unless there is something I don’t know, she’s rather strongly in favor of less bullshit and more support for people, and for positive lasting change. There is every ch…y’know what? Fuck it. Imma predict:

      Swift is going to come onto social media demonizing Trump, tearing down this false endorsement, endorse Harris, AND make a personal request for her fans to get out and vote.

        • BigPotato@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          This ain’t ‘general’ anymore.

          I don’t think she’ll be quite as vitriolic but I also don’t expect this to fall under “don’t ever rock any boats for any reason” especially as someone with enough money to leave if need be.

    • Today@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I have wondered the same - is he so afraid of losing that he’s throwing the race?

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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    He’s clearly been primed to use bogus generative AI content to help his campaign. But in typical Trump fashion he’s managed to heavy-handedly hamfistedly botch it.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    That is good! He will piss off Taylor Swift with that move, who will turn the Swifties towards Harris.

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        The big thing it might do is mobilize the squirrels to hide…

        I swear I typed “Swifties to vote” but my phone decided "squirrels to hide"was better.

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        4 months ago

        That’s not the point. She could easily tap the biggest voter resource - the non-voters - by asking her fans to go and vote. Imagine a horde of switfties registering now and then voting in November…

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          4 months ago

          asking her fans to go and vote.

          I don’t follow her at all, but I was under the impression that she did this already.

          • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Well, you can just “say something” and you can really bring a message home if you have the influence.

      • Hazzia@infosec.pub
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        If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to never underestimate the spread of TSwift’s influence. Never.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Yea like a shitload of religious people that just do as they’re told and vote as they’re told by their tax exempt pastor.

  • OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip
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    This is such a bad move for his campaign, this is going to force her to release a statement, if she doesn’t sue.

    She probably wasn’t going to endorse any candidate since that’s the smart move as an entertainer… but I wouldn’t be surprised if she just endorses Harris very publicly now to get ahead of any stain on her reputation.

  • Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I think she’s beautiful — very beautiful! I find her very beautiful. I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented,” he said. “I think she’s very beautiful, actually — unusually beautiful!

    FOR ONCE. IN YOUR FUCKING LIFE. DON’T BE WEIRD.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Everyone has seen his act time and time again.

    Step 1: Falsely accuse someone you don’t like of doing X.

    Step 2: Do X.