Several Republican officials are facing backlash for circulating an AI-generated image that claimed to be an American airman rescued from behind enemy lines in Iran.
On Friday a U.S. F‑15 jet was shot down over Iran, kicking off a large search‑and‑rescue operation to locate the two crew members who ejected from the aircraft.
The pilot was quickly recovered but a second crew member took refuge on a remote mountainside for nearly two days before U.S. special forces swooped in and evacuated him Sunday, President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Hours after the president’s announcement, a pro‑Trump X account posted an image of a man in military uniform smiling as he clutched an American flag, surrounded by fellow troops with their arms draped around him.
“Here is the photo of the honorable Colonel being rescued yesterday,” the post was captioned. “God bless him— our soldiers are ALL doing God’s work!”
The image, which racked up more than five million views, was shared by at least three prominent GOP officials: Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and New York Rep. Mike Lawler, The Daily Beast reported.
“This is so awesome,” Abbott wrote, while Lawler posted: “God Bless America!”
Paxton, who is running for the Senate in Texas, also shared the post: “Shot down on Good Friday… rescued on Easter morning. God is sending a message to our enemies!”
The image appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence, according to a community note added by users. Multiple online detection tools also indicate with a high degree of certainty that the image is not real. And the rescued aviators have not been publicly identified.
All three Republican officials have since deleted their posts but that didn’t stop social media users from heaping criticism on them.
“Maybe when you are a member of Congress, you should try to make sure you aren’t posting AI slop from a BS right-wing influencer,” Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, wrote and shared a screenshot of Lawler’s post.
“This kind of stuff is bleak,” Billy Binion, a Reason magazine reporter, wrote of Abbott’s since-deleted post. “I get that we’re in a new era, but we desperately need a new crash course in media literacy, or just a reminder to be remotely discerning. The governor of Texas should not be sharing an obviously fake photo from a slop account.”
The viral AI-generated photo was posted five weeks into the U.S. war against Iran, which has engulfed large swaths of the Middle East in violence, leading to thousands of deaths.
Multiple recent polls indicate a majority of Americans are opposed to the conflict.
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