Trump Shares Doctored Photo That Appears to Replace Official With Natalie Harp

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Matt Growcoot
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump stand on a red carpet in front of an Air China plane, with Trump saluting and a military jet flying overhead.
The version of the image shared to Truth Social.

President Trump has shared what experts agree is a doctored photo of him and President Xi on Truth Social.

The photo was taken during Xi’s arrival ceremony when the Chinese president landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday.

In Trump’s version posted to Truth Social, the president is seen saluting stoically as a bomber flies overhead.

But that version differs from Getty Images’ picture of the exact same moment (below), which shows Trump grimacing as the bomber screeched during a flyover. Xi wears the same nonplussed expression in both pictures, something Chinese media gloated about.

Embed from Getty Images

The Getty Images version is also backed up by video and photos from other agencies, including Reuters and the Associated Press.

BBC Verify investigated the picture that Trump shared on Truth Social and concluded the photo was edited.

Reporters pointed out a couple of glaring errors: chiefly that in Trump’s image he’s only wearing one black glove, while in all other images and videos from Wednesday in Maryland he’s wearing a glove on each hand.

There’s another bizarre element: the aide standing behind Trump to his right appears to be a completely different person. In reality, chief of protocol Monica Crowley stands behind Trump. But in the Truth Social version, it’s a different person. Journalist Aaron Rupar points out on X that they look more like Natalie Harp, Trump’s aide who’s been dubbed the “human printer.”

A split-screen video from BBC News titled "How we know this is an altered photo Trump posted" shows a woman with blonde hair wearing a black blazer with her hand over her heart, with a red circle highlighting a graphic on the side of an aircraft.
The aide standing behind Trump was replaced with another woman who looks like Natalie Harp.

The BBC notes that there are also red markings on the Air China plane behind them that are missing in the Truth Social version, and Trump’s hair is different compared to the news agency photos.

“The changes are the types of cosmetic edits that you often see to ‘clean up’ photos,” Henry Farid, co-founder of GetReal Security, tells the BBC.

“Given the other obvious edits, it is clear that this image has been modified. So that increases the chance that all of these differences are due to digital or AI editing.”

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