Buff AI image of Mike Rogers goes viral
AI-altered parade photo of Mike Rogers — buffed image goes viral as campaign and rivals respond.
The internet has been having a field day with an AI-doctored Detroit News image of former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers marching in a Fourth of July campaign, looking like he could bench press any political opponent.
The doctored image was widely shared and at times mocked on social media, spurring the creation of other AI-generated images depicting Rogers as obese, the Hulk, and as a curvy woman.
Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of the left-wing news and podcasting outfit Meidas Touch, sent the image into virality with a side-by-side of the doctored version compared to The Detroit News original photo from a Fourth of July parade in 2024 in Milford.
Abdul El-Sayed, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Senate with hopes of facing Rogers in the fall general election, weighed in by suggesting Rogers was trying to match his physique.
“🗣️ computa make this guy look more like Abdul El-Sayed,” El-Sayed wrote.
The Rogers War Room, a social media account that’s an arm of Rogers’ campaign, responded by knocking El-Sayed for his height, using an image of Rogers and El-Sayed speaking on the porch of the Grand Hotel at last week’s Mackinac Policy Conference.
“🗣️ computa remove the step stool,” @RFSWarRoom wrote on X.
One social media user on X (formerly Twitter) used the photo to ding Rogers for living in Florida for several years, where he and his wife still own a $1.57 million home.
Nick Lindquist, director of communications and marketing at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, responded with faux outrage by posting an image of an even bulkier Mike Rogers.
“I’m tired of AI distorting the truth,” Lindquist wrote on X. “Here’s the original.”
The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump organization, was one of many social media users who portrayed Rogers as The Hulk.
One X user made a meme comparing the AI image to The Detroit News original to what people ordered on Temu and what actually arrived at their doorstep from the Chinese retailer.
The fashion writer Derek Guy, who critiques men’s wear, simply commented: “shirt is too baggy.”
A communications consultant for U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a Democrat running for Senate, suggested there was a double standard by Republicans who bash her boss.
Former Michigan Republican congressman Justin Amash also piped in.
He prefers to be called Homelander,” Amash wrote on X, an apparent reference to a muscular fictional character in the comic book series The Boys.
And it wouldn’t be a viral moment in politics without a new burner account emerging on X.
“So you guys are talking about me,” @BuffMikeRogers wrote Wednesday.
Staff Writer Melissa Burke contributed.
