Trump seen with Jeffrey Epstein? Here are some tips for spotting an AI-generated photo

If you only have a minute : 

• A photo published on July 4 allegedly shows former President Donald Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, a businessman imprisoned for sex trafficking, in the company of a young teenager.
• The photo was generated by AI, as evidenced by several anomalies in the anatomy of the people in the image.

The fact check, in details : 

Damning evidence against Donald Trump ? The former occupant of the White House appears alongside Jeffrey Epstein, a financier accused of sex crimes who committed suicide in prison in 2019. The two men are allegedly seen next to an underaged girl, in a photo published on July 4, viewed more than 2.5 million times on X and also shared on Facebook. 

The photo appears to have been taken during a festive evening. Trump can be seen placing his hand on the teenager's thigh, while Epstein appears shirtless behind the young girl. But the image was generated by artificial intelligence. The Observers team tells you how to spot the work of AI in this photo.

1 - Find an unretouched version of the photograph

The photo shared on X appears to have been cropped. Using a reverse image search (see here how to do it), it is possible to find an unedited version of the photograph, taken from a wider angle, published on March 6, 2024, on Threads.

2 - Analyse people in the background 

Current image-generating AI tends to neglect the appearance of people in the background of photos. Using the INVID image analysis magnifier tool, we can see that a young girl on the left of the photo has almost no nose, while a young boy on the right of the image simply has no eye.

3 - Look at the hands 

AI still struggles to represent hands correctly. It is the case for the young girl with the white dress, on the left of the picture. She is holding a glass with a completely deformed hand, while the teenager sitting in front of Jeffrey Epstein does not seem to have a thumb nor a little finger.

4 - Count the legs 

AI also struggles to generate the correct number of limbs. In the image, Trump seems to have only one leg. And Epstein seems to be entirely missing his lower limbs.

5 - Investigate the context and source of the image

To ensure the authenticity of a photo, you need to identify its source and context, as well as check if it has been used by recognised media outlets. 

You can also search for other images of the event to determine whether it really happened. If no images are available of an event seemingly attended by dozens of people, it could be a sign that the image was faked. 

Despite a thorough investigation by the Observers team, the author of this picture of Trump and Epstein could not be identified. The image has not been published by any established media source and only appears in user posts on X, Quora and the 4chan forum. 

While another photo resembling the scene featuring the former president was found on Threads, it appears that this image was also AI-generated: the individuals in the picture seem to have similar limb issues and Epstein is, again, lacking his lower limbs.