---
title: AI-generated image of Donald Trump being arrested
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trump-arrest-ai-images-2023/
description: One of a series of Midjourney images of Donald Trump being tackled by police, posted on Twitter by Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins on 20 March 2023…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![AI-generated image of Donald Trump being arrested](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/trump-arrest-ai-images-2023.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/trump-arrest-ai-images-2023.jpg)

# AI-generated image of Donald Trump being arrested

One of a series of Midjourney images of Donald Trump being tackled by police, posted on Twitter by Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins on 20 March 2023, while an indictment of Trump was expected. Higgins said he was making the pictures, but copies spread without that context and were shared as if they were news photos. Trump was not arrested in this way.

- **Date:** March 20, 2023
- **Period:** [Contemporary](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=contemporary)
- **Made by:** Eliot Higgins (founder of Bellingcat), posting on Twitter; recirculated by others
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [United Kingdom](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-kingdom)
- **Medium:** [Digital posts](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=digital-post)
- **Issuer type:** [Individual](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=individual)
- **Regime:** [Sunak Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=sunak-government)
- **Leader:** [Rishi Sunak](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=rishi-sunak)
- **Audience:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=mixed)
- **Purpose:** [Deceive or deny](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=deceive-deny)
- **Themes:** [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information), [Science and technology](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=science-technology), [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics)
- **Techniques:** [Synthetic media](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/synthetic-media/)
- **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trump%E2%80%99s_arrest_(1).jpg), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (AI-generated, no human author)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Cap, left officer: [illegible] / [illegible]
Cap, right officer: [illegible] / [illegible]
```

Two officers' caps carry embroidered two-line arched wordmarks, evidently meant to read as a police-department cap, but the letterforms are garbled and do not spell real words on either line -- a typical tell of AI image generation's inability to render coherent text. Recorded as [illegible] rather than guessed. A shoulder patch, a chest badge and a blank name-tag are also visible but carry no legible lettering, only abstract shapes.

[← 'Gennady Rakitin,' an invented pro-war poet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/rakitin-ai-persona-2023/) ['Bravery is in our DNA' Brave.ua panel, Berlin →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brave-ua-bravery-in-our-dna-berlin-2023/)

## Using the same techniques

- ['Gennady Rakitin,' an invented pro-war poet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/rakitin-ai-persona-2023/) (2023 · Synthetic media, Astroturfing)
- [AI-generated image of the Hollywood sign on fire](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hollywood-sign-fire-ai-2025/) (Jan 9, 2025 · Synthetic media)