Is a photo that shows Donald Trump with no damage to his ear immediately after the Butler assassination attempt authentic? No, that's not true: An online AI detection tool rated the image as 100% likely AI-generated. The account that originally posted the photo posts multiple AI images. Published images from the day of the assassination attempt show Trump with blood on his ear.
The claim appeared in an April 17, 2026, post on Facebook account @T.bigpicture (archived here). It opened:
WHITE HOUSE REJECTS CLAIM
TRUMP AS@SSINATION ATTEMPT WAS FAKE
CALLS IT IRRESPONSIBLE.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @T.bigpicture on Facebook.)
The account that posted the image Emery Gaming @T.bigpicture (archived here) shares multiple AI-generated photos. The post caption claimed the White House had denied that the Butler assassination attempt was faked and used an AI-generated image showing Trump without any blood or damage on his ear. It states:
The White House has firmly rejected claims suggesting that an assa*ssination attempt on Donald Trump was stag**ed. Officials stated that the incident involved confirmed vi*olence and loss of life, emphasizing that it was a ser*ious national event. Investigators have supported these findings based on available evidence, reinf*orcing that the situation should not be dismi*ssed or mischar*acterized.
A telltale sign of AI in the photo shows the car door bent in an impossible way behind Trump, as this screenshot shows (red highlight added by Lead Stories):
(Image source: post by @T.bigpicture on Facebook.)
The Hive Moderation AI-Generated Content Detection tool rated the image as 100% "likely to be AI-generated":
(Image source: Hive Moderation.)
The July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was widely covered by news outlets. A Google Lens search of the image did not find any matching results in legitimate news reports and only on social media accounts, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Google.)
Photo agency Getty Images (archived here) has hundreds of photos of Trump from that day with blood on his ear and face visible, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Getty Images.)
