Is a photo that shows Melania Trump holding the President Jimmy Carter funeral program upside down authentic? No, that's not true: The image of President-elect Donald Trump's wife at the January 2025 funeral for Carter holding a program upside down is altered. Footage from the funeral by NBC, publicly available on the internet, shows that Melania Trump is holding the program correctly. The seal on the front of the program is doctored to appear upside down on the back of Melania Trump's program.
The claim appeared in a post on X on January 9, 2025 (archived here) that said:
Obama showing 2 illiterates how to read.
Melania is holding it upside down.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Jan 10 19:04:29 2025 UTC)
Footage from the January 9, 2025, funeral service (archived here) for Carter at the National Cathedral in Washington posted on the NBC News YouTube page shows Melania Trump with the program, holding it with the seal on the front. She is sitting next to her husband, who is sitting next to former President Barack Obama, who is holding the program upright with the seal on the front.
In the video at the 38:52 mark, Melania Trump is seen sitting down, holding the program upright:
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Fri Jan 10 20:11:16 2025 UTC)
She continues holding the program open with the seal on the front while she flips through the pages as the video shows at the 39:03 mark:
Read more
Other Lead Stories fact checks about Melania Trump can be found here.
