Does a photo show a picnic at a Black Detroit church visited by Trump in June 2024? No, that's not true: The photo was taken in 2023 at a fly-fishing lodge in Idaho. It pictured a gathering of TV and movie celebrities that happened over 1,600 miles from the 180 Church in Detroit, and the photo was posted originally on Instagram in July 2023.
The claim appeared in a Threads post (archived here) on June 17, 2024. It opened:
The church picnic at the Black church in Detroit that DementiaDon visited. What do you notice?
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot captured on Mon Jun 24 8:37:30 2024 UTC)
The photograph shows a group of celebrities, including CNN anchor Jake Tapper, late night talk show hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon and film star Jennifer Aniston, among others having a picnic at a long table set outdoors. The photo was taken at the Kimmel-owned South Fork Lodge, in Swan Valley, Idaho, and appeared in an Instagram post (archived here) published on July 7, 2023. The Instagram post's caption read:
Idaho, chapter 1 🏔️🧡
The distinctive building with black window framing and grey structure, visible in the background at the upper left of the photo, can be seen on the lodge's websites here and here. Plus, the scenery behind the picnic matches South Fork Lodge's Snake River setting. The location of the photo and the celebrity diners was confirmed by a report on today.com, where the same photo appeared.
The picnic photo is not related to Trump's visit to Detroit's 180 Church on June 15, 2024. Although the church's congregation is primarily African-American, a racially mixed crowd of attendees were present during Trump's visit, as Reuters reported.
Although the Threads post is not labeled satire, the juxtaposition of a celebrity-filled photo taken in Idaho with a reference to Trump and a Detroit church permits a satirical interpretation.
