Does an image comparison show a real Getty photo of Donald Trump next to a White House-edited version giving him smooth skin? No, that's not true: Both photos are edited, and neither can be attributed to those two sources. Reuters published the original image, which does not look like either of the edited images.
The claim appeared in a post by @CattardSlim on X on July 25, 2026 (archived here). The post featured a comparison image of Trump: one photo showed him with an unnaturally smooth face, and the other photo showed him with several wrinkles, bumps, and light hair. The caption of the post read:
Getty photo vs. what the White House releases. 😂
This is what the image included in the post looked like:
(Image source: post by @CattardSlim on X.)
A previously published Lead Stories fact check showed that the supposed "Getty photo" was an edited version of a real image of Trump in Georgia published in a Reuters article and taken on July 22, 2026 (archived here). The image is included below:
(Image source: Reuters.)
The alleged "what the White House releases" photo is also an edited version of the Reuters image. Searches on Google Images (archived here), TinEye (archived here), and Yandex (archived here) did not show any results linking the smooth-skin image to the White House.
Lead Stories also checked the White House's own gallery (archived here) of photos from Trump's Georgia event. None of them match either image in the viral comparison.
