Could Taylor Swift sue Donald Trump?
The question arises after the GOP presidential nominee shared several images (some generated by artificial intelligence) on his social media platform suggesting that the singer and her fans support his campaign. One of the images portrayed Swift’s likeness in Uncle Sam-style fashion, accompanied by the text: “Taylor wants YOU to VOTE for DONALD TRUMP.” The former president added: “I accept!”
Swift could sue. And while there are any number of reasons that the pop star won’t expend the effort of taking Trump to court, one legal area that could be relevant is the right of publicity, which protects people from certain forms of unauthorized exploitation. That subject arose in another high-profile context recently, when OpenAI developed a chatbot voice assistant that sounded much like Scarlett Johansson; the company subsequently pulled it after public scrutiny, but denied that it was an imitation of the actor’s voice. (Representatives for Trump’s campaign and Swift didn’t immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.)
Trump’s post comes as many legal questions remain unanswered in this era of AI proliferation and the internet. There isn’t presently reason to think that this episode will become a legal case that tests those frontiers — saying nothing of whatever would come of such a case, including any defenses (including on First Amendment grounds) that Trump would seek to raise. But if he continues to potentially antagonize the star, whose political sympathies seem to lie elsewhere, we may find out how much of a case she has. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for updates and expert analysis on the top legal stories. The newsletter will return to its regular weekly schedule when the Supreme Court’s next term kicks off in October.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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