Did an authentic photograph show several mourners wearing blue attire at the funeral of Pope Francis? No, that's not true: An image shared widely on social media had been digitally edited to change the color and tone of the clothes worn by several dignitaries, including former President Joe Biden. Some observers had criticized President Donald Trump for wearing a blue suit to the funeral.
The image appeared in an April 27, 2025, post on X (archived here), which read:
HOAX: If you heard anything about the Pope's funeral from the drive-by media you heard that Trump thumbed his nose at the Vatican by wearing a blue and not a black suit. Everyone from the Prince of Wales to Joe Biden wore a blue suit - the only way I know this is because of 𝕏.
This is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot)
Some observers had criticized President Donald Trump's decision to wear a blue suit at the April 26, 2025 funeral, and the post on X seemed to contextualize that by appearing to show several other mourners -- including former President Joe Biden -- also wearing blue instead of black.
However, the image attached to the post on X had been digitally edited to make the attire of several individuals appear blue when, in fact, they were not.
The original photograph was taken by Markus Schreiber for the Associated Press, and showed the April 26, 2025 funeral at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican:
In comparing certain sections of it to corresponding sections in the image included in the April 27 post on X, it's clear that the latter had been digitally edited:
(Source: Lead Stories collage of @amuse post on X and AP Photo/Markus Schreiber original)
