The shocking truth behind young, beautiful women promoting Trump on X

Don’t believe everything you read on social media. Especially if it is a chic American woman named Sophia or Samantha backing Donald Trump. There’s a possibility that she does not exist.

A new trap has been uncovered where fake social media accounts were created to show support for Republican candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming US presidential elections. What’s more shocking though is that these accounts use images of real-life fashion and beauty influencers. According to an investigation by the nonprofit Center for Information Resilience (CIR), unknown actors have stolen images of more than a dozen women from Europe and even Russia to promote Trump and his running mate JD Vance.

The report comes amid concerns over rising numbers of fake accounts on social media platform X owned by Elon Musk. Interestingly, Musk is not only a supporter of Donald Trump but might even bag a “top job” in the administration if the Republican is back in the White House.

The beautiful fake women promoting Trump

According to CIR, close to 16 accounts were uncovered that used images of European influencers, without their permission, to pose as young women promoting Trump and encouraging thousands of followers to vote for him.

These accounts, which use stolen images of real people to appear authentic, were among 56 profiles that appear to be part of a coordinated campaign to push pro-Trump content, it added. “By using images of the influencers, the accounts recognise the value of creating a believable human persona, steering clear of the generic photos and bot-like usernames usually associated with fake accounts,” CIR’s report said.

The fake profiles use everyday images from the influencers’ Instagram accounts – including pictures of them at the beach or walking their dog – which are captioned with MAGA-related hashtags or pledges to vote for Trump, CIR said. (MAGA, or Make America Great Again, is a political slogan associated with Trump and his campaign.)

The influencers are bewildered. According to CNN, who investigated with CIR, the account of @Luna_2K24, a “MAGA Trump supporter” with nearly 30,000 followers uses photos of Debbie Nederlof, a German fashion influencer. The account shared a beach selfie of Nederlof in a white bikini with the caption, “Would You Support Trump Being The President forever? I wonder if you all support Trump for president just like me” – a post which was viewed by 54,000 people.

Nederlof was outraged that her face was being used to propagate a pro-Trump agenda on X. “To be honest, ‘what the f**k?’ was my reaction. That was my reaction, because I have nothing to do with the United States. With Trump, the political things over there. What the hell do I – from a small place in Germany – care about US politics,” she was quoted as saying by CNN.

Spreading misinformation

Similarly many accounts have used stolen pictures or AI-generated images to spread misinformation about hot-button political subjects such as a recent assassination attempt against Trump, his Democratic rival Kamala Harris’ ethnicity and US military aid to Ukraine, the report said. Some accounts also promote anti-vaccine and COVID-19 conspiracies, with posts viewed hundreds of thousands of times. “They post about divisive issues in US politics in a bid to exploit pre-existing tensions,” the report said.

Most of the 56 accounts use images of young, attractive women supporting Trump with hashtags like #MAGAPatriots, #MAGA2024 and #IFBAP (I Follow Back All Patriots). They have been created in the last few months with all declaring their location as the United States. Their follower account has grown fast; they post similar messages with errors in English, reports CNN, with some experts suggesting foreign interference.

Violating X’s rules

X did not respond to a request for comment. Impersonation is a violation of the platform’s rules, and accounts posing as another person, group or organisation may be “permanently suspended,” according to X’s website. According to CNN, X took down a majority of the accounts before the story was published on Wednesday (28 August).

Misinformation has marred the US presidential election. Musk appears to exert an outsized influence on US voters through the platform and his own personal account, which is regularly flagged by fact-checkers for spreading political falsehoods to his nearly 196 million followers. Since Musk’s 2022 acquisition of X, the platform has gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts once used to tame misinformation, making it what researchers call a haven for disinformation.

With inputs from agencies