Does a photo posted by Donald Trump on Truth Social accurately show how Bruce Springsteen looks now, or prior to plastic surgery? No, that's not true: The image has been digitally edited to make the 76-year-old rocker appear haggard. A candid photo of Springsteen posted on Instagram in 2024 shows that he did not look like that at the time. Plastic surgery or not, the altered image does not accurately represent his appearance.
The altered image was posted (archived here) on Truth Social by Donald Trump on April 12, 2026. The post was captioned:
Bruce Springsteen prior to plastic surgery???
At the top of the image is text which says:
What Happened to Bruce Springsteen?
This is the image on Truth Social:
(Image source: @realDonaldTrump post on Truth Social.)
The scope of this fact check will not extend to the question of whether Springsteen has undergone plastic surgery.
A photo (archived here) of Springsteen posing with two people was posted on the Instagram account of Talula's Pizza in Asbury Park, N.J. on Aug. 28, 2024 (embedded below).
This is not the exact photo that was altered in Trump's post, but it was taken at nearly the same moment. Springsteen's facial expression is slightly different and the people in the background have shifted position. The pictures appear to have been taken within seconds of each other and likely with the same camera, based on the matching lighting conditions and near-identical background positions. The cropped Truth Social image of Springsteen's face has been edited and the contrast enhanced to make his skin appear freckled and his teeth appear stained. The unedited photo does not look like that. Lead Stories made the GIF comparison (below) by cropping the Instagram image to match the edited image as closely as possible.
(Image source: GIF with @talulaspizza and @realDonaldTrump posts on Instagram and Truth Social.)
