To describe Donald Trump as a misogynist is as obvious as saying the leaves on a tree are green; it’s a statement that repeatedly proves itself as a truism. From the oeuvre of sexual comments he has made just about his daughters alone—he once described his daughter Ivanka’s breasts as “voluptuous—” it is safe to say that the politician, businessman, and former reality TV star has always careened towards the objectification and sexualization of women as a personality default. 

Yet, it appears that his sexism has taken on a new strain of grotesqueness this upcoming election—one which takes into account the growing dependability politicians have on social media to garner traction and visibility. More pointedly, the Trump campaign has grown increasingly dependent on an internet subculture joined together by the spread of sexist memes. 

With the addition of Truth Social, an alternative social media app owned by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), this election cycle, these memes have been given the space to multiply and flourish under the apparent assumption by app users that it is an exclusive, members-only club shielded from the public eye. And in many ways, it is. In comparison to X—which Donald Trump was banned from in 2021 but has since been reinstated by Elon Musk—not only are there significantly fewer users but they are almost all conservative Trump supporters. 

Truth Social is, in essence, a partisan echo chamber affording comfort to both Trump and his supporters. On mainstream platforms like X and Tiktok, the former president’s online presence is noticeably different; he is less likely to fall into rants and spread blatantly false claims and images that might “scare” the moderate or undecided voter—suburban women making up a large and important swath of that category. 

The story is different inside that chamber, where mainly male users find the confidence to respond to Trump’s posts with AI-generated images of women like Vice President Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton in sexual and demeaning contexts, oftentimes dressed in lingerie or unclothed. 

Deepfake pornography, also known as non-consensual sexual images, is a serious threat to young women—especially those who do not have the same level of public and private support to remove such photos online. There is currently no federal bill providing support for victims of such visual exploitation and holding accountable its creators. However, in July 2024, a group of both Republican and Democratic senators introduced the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED ACT). If passed, the bill would set federally-regulated “transparency guidelines” around AI-generated content, along with the right for victims of deepfakes to sue their violators. 

Trump not only enables this culture of falsely-generated photos and memes but participates in it. Prior to Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, he posted a collage of seemingly Swiftie-backed pro-Trump propaganda, including an AI-generated image of the pop star as a mock “Uncle Sam” with the text, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” Trump captioned the post: “I accept!” 

Following Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the former president wrote in a Truth Social post to his 6.91 million followers: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” Others, like Elon Musk, responded by saying on X that he would impregnate Swift, writing, “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life,” a reference to Republican vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance’s claim that the Democratic Party consists of corporate elites and “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” Musk also recently reposted a deepfake video on X of Harris saying she doesn’t “know the first thing about running the country,” along with other false claims made in the AI-generated voice of the Vice President. In the video, “Harris” says she is a “diversity hire” and that she has little knowledge of international politics, among other patronizing efforts against Harris. 

The swath of overtly sexist, immature, and downright unsettling online content circulated by Trump and some of his supporters is a clear indicator that his campaign has increasingly embraced “dark internet” and “edgy” meme culture—one which finds humor in the degradation and objectification of girls and women. This behavior has become seemingly normalized, especially when those with massive followings, and are even vying for political power enable it. Such sexism has been enshrined into a subversive code of ethics as a way to be part of the “in-group,” and culture of a Trump-centered conservative movement. 

There is no denying the ever-evolving role social media plays in politics. Over the summer, the Harris campaign leveraged Charli XCX’s latest album, “BRAT” as its pop culture representative, posting neon green backdrops and lowercase tweets, all within the context of XCX’s public support of the Vice President. The key difference between this and Trump’s Swift “endorsement” ventures beyond consent: one converses with a current cultural moment while the other relies on misogynistic tropes of the past. It is important to remember that while this “new sexism,” heralded by Trump and his supporters, is novel in its tactics—the popularization and politicalization of deepfakes, AI, and internet meme culture—it is fundamentally rooted in regressive, outdated, and false ideals. The influence AI deepfakes have in shaping public opinion, and possibly the results of the upcoming election, should not be overlooked.