As controversial images of Donald Trump and Natalie Harp create waves on the internet, fact-checkers offer their insights
The images might be fake but the concern is real
In the past 24 hours, social media has been ablaze with controversial news centered on President Donald Trump and his White House Appointments Secretary, Natalie Harp. Two images, one lower-resolution and the other slightly enhanced, are circulating online and show Trump and Harp kissing at a golf course, dressed in golf attire.
Their relationship has raised many questions over the past couple of weeks, but this seems to be the final nail in the coffin. However, it may not be entirely legitimate. While some people in the comments raised concerns about the image, others remarked it was AI-generated and even shared screenshots of their AI prompts asking it to confirm whether the image was real.
Several individuals shared the results of their AI search, noting that Harp had six fingers in the image, which they cited as evidence that it was not real. A few others pointed at other inconsistencies in the image. One person stated, “It is ai generated! Six fingers on [her] right hand.” Another commented, “This [has] already been debunked as AI. Zoom in, she has six fingers.”
An article from Newsweek echoed these concerns while fact-checking the images, mentioning that the higher-resolution image showed “several visual irregularities associated with AI-generated imagery.” Like social media commenters, the article pointed out the finger anomaly and noted that the background lacked consistent shapes and detail.
Regarding the low-resolution image, Newsweek observed that it was “too degraded for some of those anomalies to be seen clearly,” but emphasized that “blurring an image does not establish that the underlying scene is authentic.” Like others, they said they too confirmed their findings using Grok AI, which supported their observations.
There are some people who believe the photos might be real
In situations like this, at least two groups with completely opposing views always emerge, and this incident is no exception. While many people said the two images were fake, others considered the possibility that they were real, considering their history.
One user said, “I’m just wondering what First Lady Melania and son Barron are thinking right now.” Another wrote, “[I’d] rather look into the sun with binoculars [than] the thought of what they [may be] doing.” One person made a more insightful observation about the images and said, “If you’re talking about her right hand, where one finger seems to be parallel to the golf club, I think that may be the edge of her skirt. Don’t get me wrong, as I despise them both.”
What did the White House say?
Besides Newsweek, Snopes also fact-checked the images. In their article, they said they reached out to the White House for comment but received no response. However, Snopes reported that a White House official told them the images were “clearly a fake photo.”
This event is one of several instances in which Harp’s association with Trump has been scrutinized. Notably, in late August, Senator Jon Ossoff questioned Harp’s closeness to Trump and joked about it, drawing substantial criticism.
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