US President Donald Trump used an AI-generated image in a new Truth Social post to portray his longtime critic Robert De Niro as a supporter. In the image, shared on Sunday, the 83-year-old actor is seen holding a red T-shirt bearing the words “TRUMP IS MY PRESIDENT.” Trump implied in the post that De Niro had changed his mind.
Known for his roles in Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Raging Bull, De Niro is one of Trump’s most outspoken opponents in Hollywood. Before the 2016 presidential election, the actor called Trump a “pig,” a “punk” and a “bullshit artist”; three years later, he described him as “evil” and said he expected him to go to prison. Last month, he told USA Today that he no longer held out hope for Trump’s administration and that they should be removed from office.
Trump also targeted De Niro in 2024, calling him a “deranged old actor” and “low-IQ.” The president has also feuded with actors including Rosie O’Donnell, Alec Baldwin, Brad Pitt and Meryl Streep; in July, he shared an AI-generated video on X showing De Niro and O’Donnell as patients being treated by a doctor for “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Why it matters
The post shows how AI-generated images can be presented in a political dispute as if they had reversed a person’s publicly known stance. The past statements exchanged between De Niro and Trump have led the image to be read not merely as humorous content, but as a communication tool intended to alter perceptions of the actor’s political position. This situation highlights, particularly for social media users, the difficulty of distinguishing whether the image reflects a genuine statement or is a fabrication created to reinforce a political message. The question that remains is the extent to which Trump’s post could spread the impression that De Niro had genuinely changed his views, and how such content will be used in political polemics.
Background
Hollywood is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we published a news article mentioning the name in the last 90 days; that article was dated September 2, 2026.