Elon Musk posts AI image of Harris as communist dictator - and X users respond by playing him at his own game | The Independent
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Tesla CEO is facing backlash on X with users creating their own AI images of Musk and Trump
Rhian Lubin Wednesday 04 September 2024
Louise Thomas
Editor
Elon Musk has posted an AI generated image of Kamala Harris as a communist dictator - and X users have responded by playing him at his own game.
Billionaire Musk was responding to a post Harris put out on 1 September where she shared a poster of Donald Trump reading: "Donald Trump vows to be a dictator on day one."
"We won't let him," she wrote.
Musk initially replied: "You're lying."
Then later, he shared an AI generated image of Harris in a red communist uniform and wrote sarcastically: "Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!?"
But the Tesla CEO - the richest man on the planet - has faced a wave of backlash on his own social media platform, with several X users hitting back by creating their own AI images depicting Musk himself as a communist leader.
Elon Musk posted this AI image of Kamala Harris depicted as a communist leader (Elon Musk/X)
One account posted an AI image of Musk in a Nazi uniform, writing: "Apartheid Clyde in all his glory spreading misinformation - so here we are! Thank Grok! Can you believe Elon wears that outfit??"
Another X account, which described itself as a "concerned republican", shared a photo of Trump as a communist leader, and pointed to the former president's close relations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"Tell your daddy Trump to stop praising communist dictators all the time. Kamala never wrote 'love letters' with Kim Jong Un," they wrote.
Given Musk's vast wealth and his close ties to the Republican presidential nominee, X users said he should take "more responsibility" for what he posts on the social media platform.
One account posted this AI image of Elon Musk in retaliation (Anonymous/ X)
Mike Harvey, a Democratic nominee for the Florida senate, said the AI image was "dangerous."
"You don't think this type of extreme manipulation at best, flat out lie at worst isn't dangerous coming from the richest person on earth that happens to own one of the largest platforms," he wrote. "Doesn't all the money and power come with more responsibility?"
Republicans Against Trump also slammed Musk. "This is utterly false, and you know it," the account said. "Donald Trump, who repetedly [sic] praised the communist dictators of China and NK, explicitly said that he'll be a dictator for 'one day'."
Meanwhile, former RNC chairman Michael Steele recommended Musk get off his own social media platform.
"Dude, perhaps you should take a break from this platform..." he posted.
The Independent has contacted the Harris campaign for comment.
Trump last week attempted to clarify his previous remarks about wanting to be a "dictator for one day" if he wins the White House in November in an interview with TV personality Dr Phil.
Another user posted this AI image of Donald Trump as a communist dictator in response (David Hale/ X)
He claimed the comments, made to Fox News' host Sean Hannity in December, were in jest and were really referring to his desire to get work done quickly.
"It was said with a chuckle," he said. "The audience laughed, I laughed, we all laughed, but they take it, and they cut it… and it says, 'I want to be a dictator.'"
Fan-generated AI images have also become the Republican candidate's latest obsession.
AI images of Trump looking defiant now dominate right-wing social media platforms and accounts and have featured heavily in this election campaign.
Trump himself has been sharing AI images of himself since March 2023, with his face photoshopped onto images including a Second World War soldier, a cowboy and even the muscle-bound body of Rambo - earnestly and unironically.
His recent fixation on AI-generated promotions comes at a time in which serious concerns are being raised in Congress about the use of such content in the upcoming election - though there are currently few if any federal laws or regulations.
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Talk about an adult leadership lacking among the right.
I'm so sick of Elon Musk. Apparently wealth makes some people lose their minds. What a mistake it was to invest billions of taxpayer dollars in SpaceX. It's an embarrassment that so much of our launch capacity is now dependent on a nut job. Time to pull the plug and shift resources back to NASA where they should have been all along. Letting NASA wither on the vine over the past few decades has been a huge mistake.