President Trump’s claim that Vice President Harris’s crowd sizes at recent rallies across critical swing states are actually being inflated by artificial intelligence brings into focus how the 45th president is struggling to adapt to a race transformed by President Biden’s withdrawal.  

Trump contends that alleged anomalies in photographs are evidence of Ms. Harris dissembling about the size of her crowds. Since announcing Governor Walz as her running mate, Ms. Harris has been on a whirlwind tour of half-a-dozen swing states to energize Democrats. At every rally over the course of the week, she drew more than 10,000 attendees. 

Trump is not pleased. He took to Truth Social to write “Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!” Trump wrote of the vice president’s recent rally at an airplane hanger in Michigan that drew more than 15,000 attendees, according to her campaign. 

“She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror-like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane. She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people!” Trump expounded further on Truth Social on Sunday.  

Trump claims that this  manipulation is evidence of a larger fraud. “This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING — And they’re even worse at the Ballot Box. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE,” he wrote. 

Later in the day, Trump  posted another message on his social media platform, saying that Ms. Harris’s “fake ‘crowd’” was a sign of election interference. 

“EVERYTHING ABOUT KAMALA IS FAKE!” Trump shot off in one message on Sunday. 

The former president has long seen his rally attendance as a point of pride. For the bulk of his political career, he has been one of the only candidates or office holders who has consistently drawn large crowds for his events. In 2016,  his rallies became political phenomena and central to his improbable rise to the presidency..  

Democrats are reveling in Trump’s consternation. Mr. Walz, on Thursday, quipped at a rally for Ms. Harris at Arizona that the Harris–Walz ticket may have drawn the largest crowd for a political event in the state’s history. 

“It’s not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes,” Mr. Walz said with a laugh.