Former President Donald Trump's name was mentioned in recently unsealed documents from a 2017 lawsuit by an alleged victim of late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and that mention was quickly followed by a viral social media post with photos that purported to show Trump surrounded by young girls on Epstein's private jet.
However, it was swiftly determined that the photos were fake and created by artificial intelligence, which prompted a furious response from Trump and a warning about the dangers of AI, according to the Washington Examiner.
On January 3, an anti-Trump leftist user on X posted a pair of pictures that seemed to show former President Trump surrounded by young girls on a plane and was captioned with a claim that the photos were snapped on two separate trips Trump supposedly took to Epstein's private island in the Caribbean.
The photos were immediately debunked as being false and AI-generated by a "community note," and other users in the comment section posted screenshots of the alleged victim's deposition in which she clarified that she'd only heard Epstein brag about being friends with Trump and had never seen, much less slept with, Trump on Epstein's private jet or any of his several properties.
Yet, the next day, anti-Trump Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo, who plays the "Hulk" in Marvel movies, shared with his followers the original post with its two fake pictures and wrote, "Gross. #MAGA wants to paint everyone on those flights as pedophiles except the one guy who smiles in a group of young girls all headed to Epstein’s 'Fantasy Island' with him. My bet is there are some decent republicans left in America that may think this is going too far."
However, Ruffalo's January 4 post was also hit with a community note explaining how the photos were AI-generated fakes as well as reminders in the comments and screenshots of the clarifying testimony from the alleged victim.
Ruffalo never deleted the X post that included the fake AI-generated photos of former President Trump with young girls on a plane, but did reshare it along with an apology a couple of days later -- though that supposed apology sought to shift blame to X owner Elon Musk for permitting the "disinformation" that the actor himself had shared.
"Sorry Folks. Apparently these images are AI fakes," Ruffalo said. "The fact Trump was on Epstein’s plane and what Epstein was up to is not. Be careful. Elon’s X and his allowing so much disinformation here is driving the value of his app down by 55%."
On Tuesday, former President Trump took to his Truth Social account and shared screenshots of a Daily Mail article about Ruffalo's purported apology for sharing the false AI-generated images and lashed out against the use of AI to attack him by Democrats like Ruffalo.
"This is what the Democrats do to their Republican Opponent, who is leading them, by a lot, in the Polls. This is A.I., and it is very dangerous for our Country!" Trump wrote.
He added, "Also, I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his 'stupid' Island. Strong Laws ought to be developed against A.I. It will be a big and very dangerous problem in the future!"
Also on Tuesday, ABC News reported on how the unsupported claims of a connection between Trump and Epstein had been "discredited" as they stemmed from the since-retracted allegations of just one of Epstein's several alleged victims who came forward to publicly accuse the once-prominent Democratic financier and convicted pedophile.
That accuser is Sarah Ransome, who made lurid accusations against Trump and others to a reporter in 2016 but later told the same reporter to "retract everything" she had previously said, and later admitted in an interview to making everything up about Trump and the others as a way to draw media attention to Epstein's criminal behavior with underage girls.
Thus, with that retraction, there are no credible allegations or evidence that Trump -- who famously cut ties with Epstein even before the initial accusations against him of pedophilia were made -- was ever on Epstein's private jet or island or that he had slept with any of the young girls that Epstein kept as sex slaves.
