From Pope to Sith Lord: Donald Trump's flights of fancy with AI

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Trump lated said in a separate media interaction, “I’d like to be pope. That would be my No. 1 choice,” and praised Dolan as “a great guy.” Cardinal Dolan later responded to the image, saying, “I hope [Trump] didn’t have anything to do with that,” and calling it “not good.”

There’s a warning embedded in the best sci-fi films about humans falling for artificial intelligence: Her, Ex Machina, Blade Runner 2049. The message is always the same—once the fantasy becomes real enough, we don’t just believe it. We fall in love with it. We follow it. We vote for it.

But for President Donald J. Trump, 2025 edition, these warnings are less cinematic parables and more campaign strategy. He is not merely a man, nor merely a meme. He has become a fully AI-enhanced brand of political mythmaking. In a world where authenticity is algorithmic and truth is curated by prompts, Trump has become both the prompt and the result. He is Pope, Sith Lord, duck rescuer, Swiftie icon—all rendered in surreal, AI-generated glory.

This isn’t a White House—it’s a live-action episode of Black Mirror, with the Commander-in-Chief directing his own hallucination.

Weekend Update: Trump Shares AI Generated Image of Himself as Pope – SNL

In April 2025, shortly after Pope Francis’s death, Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself as the Pope on Truth Social. He appeared in full papal regalia—gold-trimmed white robes, a mitre, and the usual sanctified smirk.

Trump lated said in a separate media interaction, “I’d like to be pope.

That would be my No. 1 choice,” and praised Dolan as “a great guy.” Cardinal Dolan later responded to the image, saying, “I hope [Trump] didn’t have anything to do with that,” and calling it “not good.”

To critics, the image was tasteless. To supporters, it was theology. Trump wasn’t mocking faith—he was manifesting his own version of it, with himself at the altar. Like the simulated afterlife in San Junipero, the reality didn’t need to be authentic—just emotionally resonant.

On May 4th, 2025—Star Wars Day—the official White House account shared an AI-generated image of President Trump wielding a red lightsaber, flanked by bald eagles, American flags, and a molten red sky. The image was accompanied by a caption framing Trump as the leader of a rebellion against “the Empire of bureaucracy.”

But anyone remotely familiar with Star Wars lore noticed the gaffe instantly: red lightsabers aren’t carried by Jedi heroes. They’re the weapon of Sith Lords—the villains. In the Star Wars universe, red is the colour of tyranny, manipulation, and the Dark Side.

That nuance, however, seems to have escaped Team Trump. For them, the red saber likely symbolised strength, vengeance, and fiery patriotism—fitting the aesthetic of a president who prefers mythic spectacle over metaphorical consistency. It was yet another reminder that in Trump’s AI universe, symbolism is a tool, not a text to be studied. Even when it misfires, it works.

For his base, it didn’t matter whether Trump was cast as Anakin or Palpatine—so long as he looked ready to crush the liberal Empire. Canon was irrelevant. The vibes were right. It was Black Mirror’s “15 Million Merits” with MAGA hats—where power isn’t earned but simulated into existence.

During the 2024 campaign trail, Trump falsely claimed that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio were stealing and eating cats and ducks. Local police departments found no evidence of such incidents. But the claim ignited a frenzy online—fueled by AI-generated images portraying Trump heroically rescuing frightened animals from vaguely threatening figures coded as immigrants.

These images weren’t officially from the Trump campaign, but they spread rapidly through Trump-aligned social media networks and influencer accounts. The emotional charge was clear: protect animals, fear migrants.

Even after the claim was debunked, the images persisted. AI wasn’t just supporting the narrative—it was creating it. It was Black Mirror’s “The Waldo Moment” reimagined—where a cartoonish digital character runs for office, and no one remembers it was supposed to be satire.

In the lead-up to the 2024 election, AI-generated images began circulating on social media showing Taylor Swift wearing “Swifties for Trump” T-shirts, standing beside a digitally inserted Trump.

There’s no evidence Trump himself or his official campaign distributed these images. However, they gained traction within pro-Trump circles, particularly among Telegram groups and alt-right forums seeking to fabricate celebrity endorsements.

Taylor Swift has never endorsed Trump and has publicly supported Democratic candidates in the past. But that didn’t stop the simulation. Because in this campaign, optics beat authenticity. Just as in Black Mirror’s “Be Right Back,” it’s not the person that matters—it’s the digital replica that feels close enough to believe.

Trump’s official embrace of AI in visual branding began earlier, in late 2022 and again in 2023, when he launched his Trump Digital Trading Cards. These NFTs featured AI-enhanced images of Trump as a cowboy, astronaut, superhero, and fighter pilot.

They were roundly mocked for anatomical oddities and amateurish design, but they sold out. Not once, but twice.

Trump didn’t just mint NFTs. He minted myth. The trading cards weren’t collectibles—they were political relics for a post-truth age.

Trump isn’t just playing with AI. He’s governing with it. In a political environment where emotion beats fact and spectacle beats policy, AI offers him the ultimate control: the ability to rewrite his own image in real time.

When polls falter or scandals erupt, AI-generated content becomes a tool for distraction and mythmaking. When narratives need inflating, digital imagery does the heavy lifting. It’s not spin—it’s simulation.

And Trump has become its high priest.

In Her, AI becomes a seductive partner. In Ex Machina, it manipulates its creators. In Black Mirror, it consumes them. In Trump’s America, AI doesn’t seduce or escape—it replaces the inconvenient world with a more flattering one. From duck rescues to papal cosplay, Sith battle stances to NFT saviour cards, President Trump is using AI not as a mirror—but as a megaphone. And what echoes back isn’t the truth. It’s a fantasy built one pixel at a time.

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