Does a photo show First Lady Melania Trump in the arms of porn star Ron Jeremy? No, that's not true: The image purporting to show Jeremy holding Mrs. Trump actually shows Jeremy holding actress Traci Bingham, whose head was digitally removed and replaced with Trump's.
The faked photo has been widely shared on social media, including a post (archived here) published on November 24, 2019, with the text:
Our classy first lady with pornstar Ron Jeremy
This is what social media users saw:
The photo was taken at "The WB Television Network's All-Star Winter TCA Party" in 2004, during a promotion for the reality TV show in which Jeremy and Bingham co-starred, according to the caption:
The WB Television Network's All-Star Winter TCA Party
LOS ANGELES - JANUARY 13: "The Surreal Life's" Ron Jeremy (L) and Traci Bingham pose at The WB Television Network's All-Star Winter TCA Party at the Annex at Hollywood and Highland on January 13, 2004 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
We are not going to pay the $499 fee to post the unaltered original image, but you can see it for free at the Getty Images website here.
Lead Stories contacted Ron Jeremy about the faked photo - of which he said he had been unaware. He did say he thinks he might have once been at a public event where Melania Trump was in attendance, but he could not specifically recall. Jeremy's manager Dante Rusciolelli recognized it as a "famous photo" of Ron and Traci. "It's funny that whoever chose to do this picked a black woman's body to put Melania's face on," Rusciolelli said.
