Trump Uses AI to Fabricate Dolly Parton Photo, Sen. Wyden Urges RFK Jr. Investigation

President Donald Trump drew attention Thursday by sharing an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself walking arm-in-arm with the late country music legend Dolly Parton through the White House.

The post on Truth Social came two days after Parton's death was announced. In the fabricated photo, Trump and Parton appear to be in close conversation as they move down a White House corridor. The image is clearly AI-generated, with unnatural proportions and lighting inconsistencies.

Trump had previously attempted to associate himself with Parton after her death. Shortly after her passing was reported Tuesday, he issued a statement calling her "one of the greatest Country singers, and far beyond, EVER." He also directed that American flags be flown at half-staff for one week in her honor.

Speaking on the Glenn Beck Program Wednesday, Trump claimed Parton "really liked" him but avoided public endorsement because she would lose "20 percent of her fans." Trump provided no evidence to support this assertion.

Parton never publicly expressed political affiliations, though she was widely recognized for her extensive humanitarian work. Her charitable initiatives included children's literacy programs and disaster relief efforts. Notably, Republicans had reduced funding for Parton's Imagination Library, which provides free books to children, over the past year.

Parton's sister, Stella Parton, was an outspoken critic of Trump, describing his behavior as "deranged, ugly, and nasty."

In a separate development, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden Thursday called for a criminal investigation into Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., citing newly uncovered evidence linking Kennedy's anti-vaccine advocacy to the 2019 measles epidemic in Samoa that resulted in 83 deaths, primarily children under five.

Kennedy, during his confirmation hearings last year, denied that his January 2019 trip to Samoa had anything to do with vaccines. However, letters obtained by The Guardian and Associated Press show Kennedy explicitly told the Samoan prime minister before his visit that he intended to investigate the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.

In a January 20, 2019 letter, Kennedy argued that two infant deaths in Samoa were "temporally associated with MMR vaccines." After his visit, Kennedy's organization, Children's Health Defense, spread vaccine misinformation in Samoa, causing vaccination rates to plummet from 60-70% to just 31%. This led to a severe measles outbreak with 5,707 cases and 83 deaths.

The measles outbreak in Samoa marked a dramatic shift from the country's previous success in controlling the disease, with no severe outbreaks since 1985.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has seen increasing measles cases, with 2,777 reported this year alone, exceeding 2025 projections. CDC data shows vaccination coverage for U.S. kindergartners fell from 95.2% to 92.4% between the 2019-2020 and 2025-2026 school years, below the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity.

Other Democratic officials have also called for Kennedy's removal. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey stated Kennedy "cannot be trusted to run HHS for even one more day," while Hawaii Governor Josh Green, who witnessed the Samoan outbreak firsthand, said Kennedy should resign "for the safety and health of our country."

Kennedy's potential violation of federal law regarding false statements to Congress raises additional concerns, as making false statements to federal officials is a felony under U.S. Code.

In another development, the Trump administration is reportedly considering transferring a 0.25-mile parcel of Yosemite National Park to a private developer. According to NOTUS, the administration is proposing that Kingsbarn Realty Capital, a Nevada-based developer, receive the land in exchange for property of equal value elsewhere in California.

Kingsbarn Realty already owns 83 acres adjacent to the park, about five miles from Yosemite's sequoia groves. The company seeks to build a road connecting its property to a main road inside the park, potentially providing unprecedented private access to federally protected forests.

According to four sources who spoke with NOTUS, the Department of the Interior and its political leadership are pressuring the National Park Service to approve the deal. One anonymous source described the political pressure as "very unusual."

The proposed transfer would contradict the 150-year history of protecting national parks from private interests. Cicely Muldoon, former Yosemite superintendent and 40-year National Park Service employee, stated that the fundamental purpose of national parks is "to preserve these places unimpaired for future generations, not letting go of that for the purpose of private profit."

This action follows Trump's pattern of reducing protections for public lands, including opening areas for fossil fuel extraction and shrinking national monuments, which critics argue undermines the legacy of conservationist President Theodore Roosevelt.

Additionally, reports indicate that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is leveraging Natalie Harp, a close Trump aide known for printing favorable news for the president's review, to advance his own agenda.