Is a photo that shows Melania Trump smiling and standing next to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell authentic? No, that's not true: Online detection tools flagged the image as likely digitally altered and likely AI-generated. One rated it as 97 percent likely to be digitally edited.
The claim appeared in an April 10, 2026, post on X.com by the account @JohnEzeakolam (archived here). It said:
The U.S. First Lady said she has no relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, but her picture with Epstein pops up from time to time.
This is what the image looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @JohnEzeakolam on X.com.)
The first lady is often depicted in fake photos with him, as Lead Stories has previously debunked here.
Lead Stories entered the image into several artificial intelligence detection tools that determined the image was either likely AI-generated or likely digitally altered or edited. AI-detection tools are not always accurate and should not be considered as definitive evidence.
Sight Engine determined the image was 93 percent likely a "Deepfake," with 35 percent likelihood it was AI-generated and 93 percent likelihood of face manipulation, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Sight Engine.)
Hive Moderation rated it as 8.2 percent likely to be not AI-generated, which means it's rated as most likely real:
(Image source: Hive Moderation.)
ZeroGPT rated it as 97 percent likely to be digitally edited, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: ZeroGPT.)
AI or Not rated it as 80 percent likely AI-generated, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: AIornot.)
Reverse image searches of the image using Google Images and TinEye returned other social media posts but did not provide any credible evidence that the photograph is authentic.
Here is a screenshot of the image search on Google Images:
(Image source: Google Images.)
Here is a screenshot of the image search on TinEye:
(Image source: Tineye.)
