Is a "newly leaked" photo of Jeffrey Epstein with his arm around Melania Trump authentic as claimed in a social media post? No, that's not true: The original photo was Epstein holding his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, but the image was reversed and Trump's head was digitally added to replace Maxwell's. The photo of Epstein and Maxwell was released by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its prosecution of Maxwell on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. Another clue that it is not real is a small "satire" label at the bottom of the meme.
The claim appeared as a meme (archived here) posted on X on July 27, 2025 under the title "Notice anything?". The meme was in the style of a video news report with captions that read:
BREAKING NEWS
NEWLY LEAKED EPSTEIN FILE PHOTO SURFACES, PROMPTING TRUMP TO TRIPLE DOWN ON INSANE CONSPIRACY THEORIES
'THIS PROVES OBAMA IS GUILTY! HE OBVIOUSLY TOOK THIS PHOTO!'
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)
A reverse image search revealed no instances of the exact image beyond the meme. However, it did lead to this article (archived here) from The Guardian newspaper published June 22, 2022:
(Source: screenshot of TheGuardian.com by Lead Stories)
Maxwell's hands and ring match those in the meme. The meme-maker reversed the image from its original orientation.
The version of the meme that appeared on X was originally posted (archived here) on Bluesky by "The Meme War Veteran" on July 23, 2025. That post was labeled "Satire" in the caption:
(Source: screenshot of Bluesky by Lead Stories)
One satirical aspect of the meme is the inclusion of an image of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller appearing in the background:
(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)
