As We Know, He Can't Stand Reality

I try to put images of Trump on this blog as little as possible, despite the regime's egregious use of AI images to puff him up. (For example... did you see the recent one with him dressed as a general, complete with medals, standing between MacArthur and Eisenhower? The nerve of this man.)

For some reason, I feel called upon to comment on a more trivial example I saw recently. It was posted as AI being used to "touch up" this photo of him in a golf cart with retired South African pro Gary Player. 

The original:

The so-called retouched image:



And clearly, the overall engoldening of Player and the aide or caddy in the blue shirt is retouching (plus the caddy has been moved out of the frame to the right a bit for some reason). 

However, I would say the background has not been retouched, but is instead a completely new background, created with AI.

And that is also true of the image of Trump. This is not a retouched photo: It is a completely new image, generally based on the components of the other photo:


If it were only retouched, there is no reason the 45-47 on the side of his hat would have been changed at all, let alone to become what appears to be 6-41. The numbers were more readable in the original. There was also no improvement made by changing the fold of his right sleeve, or the angle of his pinky finger. 

Trump has been given an entirely new face, which is less surprising: no more dumb-gaping mouth, no more eye bags or peering squint, and his skin tone has become an even glow. It's a little extra weird that they didn't put the actual Trump golf resort logo onto his shirt. (The AI created more width on the left breast of the shirt to fit the full word TRUMP in.) 

Trump, of course, has been brought out of the shadow that originally was falling on him, compared to Player who was in full sun. And Trump's body has been recreated with a more upright posture and multiple sizes smaller than it actually is.  

And his shirt is just so smooth. You never realize how many wrinkles a shirt has until an AI makes a shirt for you.

I think it's important to keep the words "retouched" or "touch up" for removing a wrinkle here or there, or shifting color. When a completely different, imaginary version of a person has been dropped into an otherwise relatively accurate depiction of a scene... that is not retouching.