Washington, DC — May 10, 2026: Former President Donald Trump flooded his Truth Social account with more than a dozen posts on Saturday that blended AI-generated scenes of maritime combat with snapshots from a weekend golf event.
The series of posts began after a quiet morning for Trump and kicked off at 3:51 p.m., when he shared a fabricated image showing unmanned aerial vehicles marked with Iranian insignia plunging into the sea, accompanied by the caption that they were “dropping like butterflies.” Subsequent images included a synthetic depiction of an American vessel firing laser-like beams and triggering massive explosions in the air, captioned “Bye Bye, Drones.”
Trump used the digitally produced visuals to attack political rivals, aiming criticism at former Democratic presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama over their handling of Tehran. One split-screen graphic contrasted a largely destroyed Iranian fleet labeled “Trump” with a fleet of intact ships labeled “Obama/Biden,” appearing to support Trump’s earlier claim that U.S. forces had destroyed 159 Iranian vessels.
Another AI-created image showed Trump aboard a ship, binoculars raised, watching a distant fleet engulfed in flames. The posts arrived amid fragile conditions between Washington and Tehran, where officials have described a tenuous ceasefire even as both sides maintain blockades in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Reports indicate the rising tensions are broadly unpopular with voters at home.
Intermixed with the military-themed posts, Trump also posted images from the LIV Golf tournament at his Trump National Golf Club in Virginia. The photos, which appeared to be stills from a television broadcast, highlighted the club’s expansive Potomac riverside grounds.
Observers noted Trump at the Virginia tournament seated behind bulletproof glass alongside his son, Eric Trump. He had also recently attended the Cadillac Championship in Florida.
The images shared on Truth Social were generated with artificial intelligence and combined political messaging with leisure coverage, blurring the line between staged digital imagery and real-world events.
This report is based on a syndicated feed and was published as received. The Tribune is not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of the syndicated content.
