An comparison of images of U.S. President Donald Trump shows a photo edited by the White House next to Getty Images’ original photo.
Both images were altered versions of an authentic photo by Reuters. No evidence suggested the White House shared either image.
In July 2026, people shared an comparison of images of U.S. President Donald Trump that allegedly showed a heavily edited White House version — generally on the left — and Getty Images’ original photo — usually on the right. The images feature a close-up profile view of the right side of Trump’s face, as he speaks while wearing a blue suit, white shirt and red tie.
For example, on July 25, X user @CattardSlim posted (archived) the image comparison with the caption, “Getty photo vs. what the White House releases. 😂” The post received tens of millions of views.
(@CattardSlim accessed via X)
In sum, someone doctored both images, and no evidence suggested the White House posted the more-flattering version. Snopes’ investigation confirmed the rumor was false.
Reuters hosts the original photo. The caption reads, “U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the ‘Trump Accounts’ tax-advantaged investment program at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia, U.S., July 22, 2026.” Reuters credited photographer Evelyn Hockstein with taking the picture.
We contacted @CattardSlim on X to ask whether the user posted the image comparison as a joke or was genuinely alleging the White House shared one of the images. We also emailed the White House to confirm it did not share the doctored image and will update this article if we receive further information.
The fact-checking website Lead Stories also reported about this rumor.
Researching the false rumor
Many other users shared the false Trump image rumor on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived).
(Amy Siskind accessed via Facebook)
An X user posted (archived) a large glimpse of Hockstein’s original photo. The Guardian also published a high-resolution version.
Searches of the White House’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Truth Social, X and YouTube accounts, as well as the White House website, found no trace of the fake images. The White House did share a video and other content from the Georgia event but did not post the doctored photos.
It was unclear what tools were used in editing the Reuters photo to create the two altered images. The more-flattering image potentially features edits with artificial intelligence or a digital editing tool, whereas the less-flattering image showed changes similar to the way Adobe Photoshop’s “clarity” effect slider alters images.
According to Google Gemini and the company’s SynthID Detector tool, whoever edited the image didn’t use Google’s AI tools. Several scans with different prompts produced the same basic answer, with one answer saying, “The provided image was not generated using Google AI (no SynthID watermark was detected). However, detection tools cannot definitively rule out whether it was generated or altered by other third-party tools.” The tech company claims the SynthID Detector tool accurately detects whether someone created an image or video using Google AI tools.
For further reading, we previously reported about other doctored photos of Trump’s face, including two altered pictures allegedly showing him golfing “without makeup.”
