‘This You?’: Donald Trump’s Fake Photo of Kamala Harris and Diddy Backfires As the Internet Shares Real Pictures of Him Smiling with the Music Mogul Online

Former president Donald Trump has once again stirred up a firestorm online after sharing a doctored image of Vice President Kamala Harris with music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs on his Truth Social account.

Last week, Trump reposted a digitally altered version of a 2001 photo of Harris with former talk show host and actor Montel Williams and his daughter, Ashley. Williams tweeted that he and Harris briefly dated in the early 2000s. The fake image replaces Williams’ face with a picture of Combs.

Republican Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris (Photos: Getty Images)

The post comes just days after a bombshell indictment against Combs that accuses him of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Federal prosecutors allege that the music mogul organized hours-long to days-long sex acts called “freak offs” that commercial sex workers were forced to perform. Combs allegedly gave the workers narcotics to keep them “obedient and compliant.”

Trump’s post, which he has now deleted, also reportedly featured text asking, “Kamala doing the Diddy? Madam Vice President, have you ever been involved with or engaged in one of Puff Daddies freak offs?”

The fake photo drew intense backlash online, with many X users posting and reposting several real photographs of the Republican nominee with Combs, drawing millions of viewers. Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel even shared a clip from the 2012 episode of Celebrity Apprentice where Trump called Combs a “good friend” and “a good guy.”

“This misogynistic liar is spreading fake photos because we have plenty of Pictures of felon Trump with Diddy and now Mark Robinson,” one X user wrote. “This you?” one X user said, using the X catchphrase to point out hypocrisy.

Trump has shared fake and AI-generated images before, including some that deceptively show Taylor Swift and her fans endorsing him and one of Harris speaking to a crowd of communists in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. He also recently drew severe criticism for misinformation he spread about Haitian immigrants abducting and eating pets.

Microsoft recently reported that Harris’s campaign has faced several other misinformation attacks coordinated by Russian disinformation actors creating fake videos.

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top