Does a viral image on social media genuinely show U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and the late sex-crimes offender Jeffrey Epstein sitting snuggled up with an underage girl in a bikini top and shorts? No, that's not true: An AI-detection tool confirmed that the picture is AI-generated. This fake photo has been online since January 2024.
The claim reappeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on April 17, 2024. The text read:
Just hanging with my bestie & spreading the good
word to children...
Wanna buy a bible?
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Apr 19 15:04:22 2024 UTC)
The shared image had a classic sign of digital manipulation: The girl's hand was unnaturally shaped and missed fingers.
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Apr 19 15:04:22 2024 UTC)
A better-quality, uncropped version of the picture posted on X (archived here) on January 3, 2024, shows additional irregularities more clearly. In it, Trump has only one leg, one of his thumbs is strangely shaped and his sleeve has an unnatural geometric curve. Only Epstein's torso appears in this version of the photo; the rest of his body is missing. The calf of one of the legs of the girl sitting next to him is significantly larger than the other. Furthermore, another woman in the background appears to have two mouths.
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Apr 19 15:25:02 2024 UTC)
Hive Moderation, a tool designed to detect AI-generated content, confirmed that the image is not authentic.
(Source: Hive Moderation screenshot taken on Fri Apr 19 14:34:33 2024 UTC)
In May 2023, Lead Stories debunked a similar claim about supposed photos of Trump and Epstein together with underage women.
Additional fact checks of AI-generated fake content can be read here. Lead Stories' fact checks of claims about Trump can be found here.
