Fact Check: Image Of Elon Musk And Ted Cruz Has Been Digitally Edited -- Faces Changed, Furries Added

Fact Check

  • by: Sarah Thompson
Fact Check: Image Of Elon Musk And Ted Cruz Has Been Digitally Edited -- Faces Changed, Furries Added Edited Image

Does a real photo show Elon Musk and Ted Cruz posing together while two furries are passing in the background? No, that's not true: A real photo that was posted on Instagram by Ted Cruz has been digitally altered. The changes to the photo are subtle, but unflattering. The faces of the two men have been changed to take away their smiles and age them. Two furries with convention lanyards have been added in the background.

The altered image (archived here) was posted on X by OWS1892 on Jan. 14, 2026. It is captioned:

All the money & power in the world can't prevent them looking like the inadequate little men they are.

This is the altered image as it appeared on X at the time of writing:

alteredmuskcruz.jpg

(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from x.com/OWS1892/status/2011389150545789319.)

Ted Cruz had posted (archived here) the original photo (embedded below) on his verified Instagram account on Jan. 12, 2026. It was captioned:

Always great seeing this guy! 🚀

Lead Stories matched the image which had been cropped and altered over the original image and made a GIF to show the differences between the two.

muskandcruz.gif
(Image Source: Lead Stories GIF with screenshots from x.com/OWS1892/status/2011389150545789319 and instagram.com/p/DTb757ngJqh.)

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  Sarah Thompson

Sarah Thompson lives with her family and pets on a small farm in Indiana. She founded a Facebook page and a blog called “Exploiting the Niche” in 2017 to help others learn about manipulative tactics and avoid scams on social media. Since then she has collaborated with journalists in the USA, Canada and Australia and since December 2019 she works as a Social Media Authenticity Analyst at Lead Stories.


 

Read more about or contact Sarah Thompson

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