Does a viral image authentically capture the exterior of the Kennedy Center under the second Trump presidency? No, that's not true: A picture of banners reading "President Trump Welcomes You" is not a product of reportage photography. It is a digitally created illustration.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published on March 11, 2025. It read:
Can't wait till we tear this down one day. Waste of taxpayer money.
The image shared in the post appeared to show bannersthat read:
PRESIDENT TRUMP WELCOMES YOU.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Mar 12 15:28:08 2025 UTC)
Behind the banners, social media users saw the name of the (achieved here) in the image.
A Google reverse image search, however, showed that the imperial-style banners originated not from a photo but from The Daily Beast article (archived here) published in mid-February 2025. The caption under the image clearly described it as:
Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images.
The term "illustration" distinguished the image from a photograph of a real set of objects.
On February 7, 2025, Trump announced in a post on Truth Social (archived here) that he would be changing the center's leadership, and he himself later became the institution's chair (archived here).
Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Donald Trump are here.
