Does a viral image of President Donald Trump approaching the French first lady for a kiss accurately document the scene in Versailles? No, that's not true: The picture was first posted by an account that labeled it as satire. The picture was loosely based on real photos of the event, but was likely to have been digitally edited with the use of AI.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X by @EastEndJoe on June 18, 2026. It opened:
The look on her face is EXACTLY the look on our faces even without physical contact.
This is what the image attached to the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @EastEndJoe on X.)
The picture showed a watermark: "menacing pansy." That was a page on Facebook that initially published (archived here) the image earlier that day under the following caption:
Some sorta satire.
Three AI detectors (InVID, AI or Not and ZeroGPT) found some presence of generative AI in the image, suggesting that it was used to digitally alter the picture.
(Image source: InVID.)
(Image source: AI or Not.)
(Image source: ZeroGPT.)
Trump came to Versailles to have dinner with the French president and his wife on June 17, 2026 (archived here), and the clothing each person wore matched their appearance in the viral image.
The visit was covered by multiple journalistic organizations, and the moment when Trump approached Brigitte Macron for "la bise" -- a traditional French greeting consisting of two or three kisses on the cheeks, depending on the region -- was recorded on the video. She did not pull away or express any dissatisfaction. For example, in this AP clip, that scene begins at the 00:20 mark (archived here).
Lead Stories additionally reviewed a Reuters collection of still images (archived here) documenting the event, but found no exact matches to the viral image.
The closest match to what was shared on social media was an AFP photo (archived here). In it, Macron looks exactly the same. Next to him, Brigitte Macron can be seen, but she walked arm-in-arm with her husband, following Trump, who was not looking at her when the photo was taken.
