MAGA Fumes at Ron DeSantis' AI-Generated Ad Showing Trump Kissing Fauci

Supporters of Donald Trump are criticizing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for a recent online attack ad that features artificial intelligence-generated images.

The confirmed blue-checked DeSantis Danger Room n Monday, a Twitter account posted an advertisement comparing Trump's rise to fame while "firing" people as the former host of The Apprentice to his inability to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), dating back to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

DeSantis Campaign Uses Deepfake AI-Generated Images

Digital forensics experts and fact checkers have verified that the ad, which has been viewed over 8.5 million times as of Friday afternoon, contains multiple deepfake images of the former president and Fauci kissing.

Thursday, Trump supporter Laura Loomer cited Elon Musk, who hosted DeSantis on Twitter Spaces when he announced his candidacy for president in 2024, in a tweet asking why Trump supporters receive a "community remark" when posting about DeSantis but the DeSantis War Room does not.

According to Newsweek, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller also criticized the ad on Thursday, following in the footsteps of his employer by referring to the Florida governor as "DeSanctimonious" on Twitter.

Conservative podcaster Tim Pool, who said he was previously deliberating between both candidates for the GOP presidential nomination, said the ad has caused him to entirely disregard DeSantis and demanded he "disavow" the ad.

According to its bio, DeSantis War Room is the presidential candidate's "rapid response Twitter operation." It is unclear if it is explicitly affiliated with or administered by the DeSantis campaign, or if the governor himself approved the video.

AI-Generated Attack Against Politicians

The DeSantis team did not, however, use the first AI-generated software in an advertisement. Last month, the Trump campaign shared a video of a fake Twitter Space featuring DeSantis' visage alongside those of Musk, Adolph Hitler, former Vice President Dick Cheney, World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, and an FBI agent.

In recent weeks, DeSantis has been particularly critical of Fauci, accusing Trump of "handing over the country to Fauci in March 2020." CNN reports that in 2020, DeSantis praised Fauci, stating that he was "really, really good and really, really helpful" and "really doing a good job."

DeSantis and his supporters are not the only ones integrating artificial intelligence images and video into their 2024 campaign. Donald Trump Jr. posted an AI video of DeSantis pronouncing his name as "Meatball" earlier this month, a term Trump the candidate has used to describe the Florida governor.

Per Fortune, supporters of Trump denounced the video. Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance tweeted, "Smearing Donald Trump with fake AI images is completely unacceptable." And Marjorie Taylor Green tweeted, "Those fake AI campaign ads need to be taken down immediately."

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