Claim
A Photo taken of ex President Donald Trump was circulated in mid January 2024 (Possibly from at Clinton, Iowa, on Jan. 6) has been validated as authentic by fact checkers.
Snopes: True
Snopes say:
A close-up photo of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s face covered with what appears to be sweat and heavy orange makeup, or self-tanner lotion, is authentic.
Snopes contacted Maury via Messenger to ask if the picture had been altered prior to being submitted for licensing. He responded, “The picture is authentic. I took it on assignment for AFP.”
A Link to the original article: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-sweat-orange-photo/
Our rating: False
Justification
This is almost unbelievable in 2024. The fact checkers have lost it. Observing things from the UK makes me feel sick as to how America is falling.
The image of Donald has clearly been edited post capture to make him look ridiculous, with the aim being to score political points. The image is purported to have come from the AFP so I can only assume that this is true, and that someone there altered the image.
The basics:
- The image has been taken of ex President Donald Trump, presumably at a political rally. That much is correct.
- Yes, Donald probably uses product on his face but it is not bright orange
- The image has been altered around his face, with this region being cut out, possibly the eyes were left alone.
- The cut out part has been adjusted in photoshop (poorly) to increase the image saturation
- The altered part has then been stuck back over the original image leaving it obviously manipulated.
Evidence
Is this a “genuine” photo?
The genuine nature here refers to the fact that it is a photo of Donald. It is not a photo of someone else who has had Donald’s head pasted onto it. However the photo is not “genuine” in the sense that it appears as it was recorded by a camera, and there are notable changes to the original image that make it a manipulated image.
Look at this part of the image, of the side of Donald’s head –
This harsh line that you can see separating his hair from the guy behind, and reaching down around his ear. This is clear evidence of a pasted portion of the image which has been crudely cut out prior to manipulation. The bad “cut” around his ear show that part of the captured background has been altered beyond his head along with the intended changes.
On the left side of his head again from top to the bottom of his ear, you can see a very harsh line separating him from the background that is not present around any other person’s head in the image. Granted there is always a focus line when the subject of an image is in sharp focus, but this is beyond photography alone.
Around Donald’s collar the same harsh line can be seen again and his neck does not blend into the collar as it should.
Lastly, it is less clear here, but it is possible that Donald’s eyes may have been left alone and cut out and only the skin around them was adjusted.
As an example of the technique used, here is my attempt at doing the same thing as above to the UK’s Boris Johnson:
He looks rather hot under the collar, no?
And the original below:
Conclusion
Despite the assertion by fact checkers that the photo is “genuine” it clearly is not and has been tampered with after the image was captured. People are so lazy now at faking evidence and then lying about it. I really can’t imagine how anyone can take the media at face value anymore or believe fact checkers who back up obviously fake official narratives.
The wisdom of the anonymous crowd on the internet is correct in this case and the fact checkers are wrong.
