This analysis doesn’t have anything to do with the substance of the respective tickets. The Democrats play optics, and it looks like the Harris-Walz campaign got Trump good by manufacturing an AI-enhanced or generated photo scandal. This is the photo that suckered him.
Here’s what I think happened. On August 7, Harry Sisson, a social media influencer, shared on X an image of a Harris-Walz rally in Detroit Metro Airport that looks weird. It appears to be AI-enhanced or generated. I put it through three AI-generate image detectors: Maybe’s AI Art Detector, AI Image Detector, and Advance AI Image Detector. All three reported a 54-55% chance that the image is artificial (others social media users have reported higher percentages). Maybe Sisson was given the image to share. Maybe he saw it and shared it without considering that it might look AI-enhanced or generated (he’s not very bright, so a happy accident is not beyond the realm of possibility). Whatever the case, Trump took the bait and walked right into what may have been a trap. The Harris-Walz campaign was waiting in the wings with many pics and vids from the event that look to be authentic. Predictably, the media is having a field day.
The polls have the horse race neck-and-neck. But it feels like the Harris-Walz campaign has momentum. If the Trump-Vance campaign doesn’t recalibrate, it’s going to have a tough row to hoe to November. Vance is doing okay. But Trump needs to lay off the personality stuff and stop going off half-cocked and instead start talking about Biden-Harris record, the situation of America (crime, foreign entanglements, gender madness, immigration, inflation), and tell Americans what he will do for them in his second term. So far, he has given the mass media plenty of material to distract Americans with (e.g., the question of Harris’ race and ethnicity).
If Trump pivots to a disciplined campaign of seriousness and statesmanship, it would be even more dramatic in light of his reputation for being a loose cannon and penchant for insulting his opponents. He needs to quit obsessing over crowd size. He draws massive crowds. Moreover, if he gets out of his own way, the respective records of Harris and Walz become more visible. No candidate would wish to run on their records in this climate. Trump is stepping on his own campaign because he is too confident for his own good. To be sure, the man’s confidence has carried him far in life (his net worth is $6.5 billion), but he’s up against a well-funded campaign with the vast hegemonic apparatus at its back—and ballot harvesting, postal voting, voting machines, etc.
Trump needs to pivot to substance and stop trying to garner the mainstream media’s attention. It’s well known that he covets the attention the corporate media lavishes on establishment candidates. He believes there’s a legitimacy there that’s really illusory. This is from his decades as a media star. But there’s now a vast alternative media apparatus he can use. Tonight, for example, he sits down with Elon Musk on X, as Trump rejoins that social media platform. That’s a good start. He needs to pick up the phone and call Joe Rogan. If he works the alternative circuit, this will not only get his message out but he will pick up street cred among those who are sick of the system and are looking for a maverick to take charge. Trump cannot depends on MAGA alone. He can’t afford to alienate those voters attracted to RJK, Jr. He needs a big tent. Americans are tired of woke progressivism. Trump just needs to stop alienating them.
freedom and reason 