‘This You?’: Donald Trump’s Fake Photo of Kamala Harris and Diddy Backfires As the Internet Shares Real Pictures of Him Smiling with the Music Mogul Online
Former president Donald Trump has once again stirred up a firestorm online after sharing a doctored image of Vice President Kamala Harris with music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs on his Truth Social account.
Last week, Trump reposted a digitally altered version of a 2001 photo of Harris with former talk show host and actor Montel Williams and his daughter, Ashley. Williams tweeted that he and Harris briefly dated in the early 2000s. The fake image replaces Williams’ face with a picture of Combs.
The post comes just days after a bombshell indictment against Combs that accuses him of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Federal prosecutors allege that the music mogul organized hours-long to days-long sex acts called “freak offs” that commercial sex workers were forced to perform. Combs allegedly gave the workers narcotics to keep them “obedient and compliant.”
Trump’s post, which he has now deleted, also reportedly featured text asking, “Kamala doing the Diddy? Madam Vice President, have you ever been involved with or engaged in one of Puff Daddies freak offs?”
The fake photo drew intense backlash online, with many X users posting and reposting several real photographs of the Republican nominee with Combs, drawing millions of viewers. Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel even shared a clip from the 2012 episode of Celebrity Apprentice where Trump called Combs a “good friend” and “a good guy.”
“This misogynistic liar is spreading fake photos because we have plenty of Pictures of felon Trump with Diddy and now Mark Robinson,” one X user wrote. “This you?” one X user said, using the X catchphrase to point out hypocrisy.
Trump has shared fake and AI-generated images before, including some that deceptively show Taylor Swift and her fans endorsing him and one of Harris speaking to a crowd of communists in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. He also recently drew severe criticism for misinformation he spread about Haitian immigrants abducting and eating pets.
Microsoft recently reported that Harris’s campaign has faced several other misinformation attacks coordinated by Russian disinformation actors creating fake videos.