Trump claims Kamala Harris rally crowd is FAKE as he posts 'AI doctored photo' - but all is not as it seems

Former President Donald Trump has claimed his opponent Kamala Harris is faking the size of her rally, as he posted what he called an 'AI doctored photo' - even though there is no evidence that the photo was manipulated.

At issue is an image that emerged from a Harris-Walz rally at the Detroit Metro Airport on Wednesday that shows a large crowd standing in front of Air Force Two - the official airplane of the vice president.

Right-wingers have wrongfully alleged that inconsistencies in the news photo reveal that it was digitally manipulated - pointing to a lack of a reflection on the plane's turbine.

But the size of the crowd could easily be proven by videos of the event.

Still, Trump seized on the issue on Sunday, claiming on his Truth Social platform that Harris 'AI'd it.'

At issue is a photo that went viral of the Harris-Walz rally at the Detroit Metro Airport on Wednesday that right-wingers wrongfully alleged is digitally manipulated - pointing to a lack of a reflection on Air Force Two's turbines

But the size of the crowd could easily be proven by footage from the event

Republicans have cited the 'reflection in the plane' as evidence that the photo was faked

'Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport?' he wrote. 'There was nobody at the plane, and she "AI'd" it, and showed a massive "crowd" of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN'T EXIST!'

'She's a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting and the "crowd" looks like 10,000 people!' he continued. 'Same thing is happening with her fake "crowds" at her speeches.'

'This is the way Democrats win Elections,' Trump argued. 'She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE.

'Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!'

Other Republicans have made similar claims, with commentator Dinesh D'Souza telling his followers to 'check the reflection in the plane.

'Does this look like a real picture to you?' he asked on Saturday. 

Another X user also claimed that 'if you look closely at the paint job of the airplane, you'll notice that the crowd does not reflect in the paint.

'Her crowd is fake. Her voters are fake. Her marriage is fake. Her political career is fake,' the X user wrote. 

Former President Donald Trump has wrongfully claimed the Harris campaign doctored a photo of her crowd size in Detroit, Michigan 

The former president derided his opponent on Truth Social as a 'cheater'

But the size of the crowd at the Harris rally could easily be proven by videos of the event.

Fact check website Snopes also said that the Winston AI Detector determined the image was '96 percent human' - meaning that it was 'likely photographed by someone and not created using an AI-generation tool.'

If anything, Snopes' findings indicate that 'it's possible that [the photograph's] lighting, shadows or filtering was digitally manipulated' but not the photo as a whole. 

Spectrum News has also determined 'the crowd did in fact exist, and the rally was attended by thousands of people, many of whom posted their own pictures and videos of the event, which was also livestreamed by dozens of news channels and attended by a slew of prominent politicians.'

It went on to quote Michigan outlet MLive, which said 'About 15,000 people filled the hangar, the crowd spilling out onto the tarmac.'

Getty Images photographer Andrew Harnick has also defended his photograph.

'It was a large crowd, and the pictures that I took that are on the Getty website speak to that,' he told the Daily Beast. 

The false accusation comes as Vice President Kamala Harris starts pulling ahead of Trump in the polls

Harnick explained that he used a zoom lens - which could make objects appear closer than they actually were.

'The plane is actually a pretty far distance from the crowd,' he said, noting that he has covered politics for decades and has not shown any biases.

'We keep our opinions to ourselves and just cover what we see in front of us,' Harnick said of photographers.  

The Harris campaign has now hit back at the former president for spreading the baseless accusation.

'1) This is an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan,' the campaign posted on X.

'2) Trump has still not campaigned in a swing state in over a week... Low energy?'

The Harris campaign hit out at Trump for spreading the baseless accusation

Trump's claims that Harris was inflating the size of her rallies came amid a bad week for the former president as he begins to lose his advantage on base fervor and crowd size.

Democratic enthusiasm skyrocketed after Harris took over her 81-year-old boss' campaign. 

A new New York Times and Siena College poll shows Harris up by four points among likely voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and Cook Political Report has reset its ratings to 'toss-up' for Georgia, Arizona and Nevada - after earlier rating them as 'lean Republican.'

Another shock poll shows that more Americans trust Harris than the former president on the economy.

Trump's standing on economic issues remained unchanged from July to August, with 41 percent approving of his handling, the Financial Times/University of Michigan Ross School of Business poll found. 

Meanwhile, Harris has a one-point advantage, which is well within the August 1-5 survey's 3.1 percent margin of error.

But Harris' 42 percent approval among 1,001 registered voters is a huge seven-point jump from Biden's results last month where he stood at just 35 percent.

A new poll shows Harris surging to a position ahead of Trump in handling the economy as Joe Biden repeatedly ranked below the former president 

Trump's advisors are now pleading with him to adopt a new 'hard-hitting' stump speech that would define Harris as liberal and weak - and forego his improvising.

The advisors say the vice president will only grow her lead in the aftermath of the Democratic National Convention, especially if they do not attack her first, according to Axios.

Republicans close to the former president say he now needs to bring new focus to his messages, which they admitted could often be self-indulgent and meandering.

'President Trump knows he's the only one who can end the media's honeymoon with Kamala Harris, and he sees a significant opening to do so with Harris' inability to defend her record on inflation and the border,' one such source told Axios.

'To get past the media force field protecting Harris, however, he needs to be very specific with his policy contrasts and is planning on debuting a hard-hitting stump speech very soon.' 

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.