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AI Generated

Does a viral image authentically show Donald Trump sitting next to Thomas Matthew Crooks, who is accused of shooting at Trump during a presidential campaign rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania? No, that's not true: The image shows signs that are consistent with generative AI technology. The image did not appear in credible news coverage of that assassination attempt or in the months afterwards.

The claim resurfaced in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on October 27, 2024. It said:

I immediately knew it was a #StagedAssasinationAttempt when they let Trump pause and pose for a picture. They knew there was only one shooter, the one Trump paid, the one they knew wouldn't live to tell his story, Thomas Crooks. Corey Comperatore was collateral damage.

This is what it looked like at the time of writing:

(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Oct 28 14:19:38 2024 UTC)

The caption referred to an unsubstantiated conspiracy (archived here) theory claiming that the Butler assassination attempt was staged.

A reverse image search on Google led to a series of July 2024 posts (archived here) on Reddit, and one of them (archived here) included a larger version of the image.

A close look at that version showed signs strongly pointing to AI.

One of them was an oddly shaped Crooks' hand that appeared to either have six fingers or a pointing finger that was strangely shaped, much thicker than usual. His other hand seemed to be missing.

(Source: Reddit screenshot taken on Mon Oct 18 15:51:45 2024 UTC)

Additionally, as seen in the screenshot above, two sides of his shirt seemed to merge into each other instead of being held together by a row of buttons.

"Crooks" was not the only person in the image whose appearance raised questions about the authenticity of the image. An FBI agent's eyeglasses looked melted into his hair instead of being held by a temple tip behind his ear:

(Source: Reddit screenshot taken on Mon Oct 28 16:03:38 2024 UTC)

Even Trump's features differentiated from his widely publicized looks.

Based on the comparison between his official White House photo (archived here) and the image that is the focus of this fact check, Amazon Rekognition -- a tool that is generally capable of accurately comparing two faces regardless of an angle and despite a time gap in between photos -- ruled out that it could be the same person:

(Source: Amazon Rekognition screenshot taken on Mon Oct 28 16:11:04 2024 UTC)

In the background, many details were blurry, as frequently seen in AI generated images. One, however, stood out: A photo showing a group of people with unnaturally distorted heads:

(Source: Reddit screenshot taken on Mon Oct 28 15:59:45 2024 UTC)

The image purporting to show Trump and Crooks was initially published by the Fugitive Crime channel on YouTube on July 19, 2024, as previously reported by Snopes (archived here). Later, its owner restricted public access to the video. As of October 28, 2024, it was still unavailable.

A Yandex reverse image search (archived here), however, found a similar clip posted by the Russian-language version of the same-name channel on July 23, 2024, and that video still could be viewed, as of this writing. The generated "photo" only appeared in it as a cover image.

(Source: Yandex screenshot taken on Mon Oct 18 18:27:28 2024 UTC)

Lead Stories ran this image through several AI generated image detectors, but the results were inconclusive.

TrueMedia, which is a nonprofit organization, however, found "substantial evidence" (archived here) that the image in question was created by AI. That ruling, in part, appeared to have been based on a fact check (archived here) produced by 13 WTHR (archived here), an NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, Indiana.

(Source: True Media screenshot taken on Mon Oct 28 18:43:13 2024 UTC)

Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims concerning the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign can be found here; fact checks of claims concerning Donald Trump can be found here.