Fact check: Misleading post about Trump's ear
July 16, 2024
Following the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump at a campaign event for the 2024 election, a wave of misinformation has spread across social media platforms. One particular claim that has lately garnered significant attention is, that Trump was not injured at all in the incident. The claim is accompanied by a "recent photo" of him showing no ear injury. This fact check investigates the validity of this claim and the origin of the photo in question.
Claim: In this post (archived here) an X user claims: "This image of Trump was taken today. There is absolutely nothing wrong with his ear, and it has zero damage, FROM A BULLET. Everything about Trump is a con or a grift." The post was published Tuesday and viewed more than 1.8 million times. Another post made a similar claim and received about 3.1 million views.
DW Fact check: False.
The photo circulating with the claim that Trump's ear shows no damage is not recent, but rather from a past event. A search using the keywords "Trump picks JD Vance as vice president" led us to a picture from the Reuters archive that looks similar to the photo attached to the claim. A reverse image search confirms this. Using Google Lens, the original picture was identified as dated September 17, 2022.
The nearly 2-year-old picture was provided again by Reuters on July 15, but marked as an archive photo. Various media outlets and agencies used it in the coverage of JD Vance's becoming Trump's vice president, leading many to believe that it is a current picture.
The original REUTERS caption reads: "FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. president Donald Trump listens as JD Vance speaks during a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, U.S., September 17, 2022. REUTERS/Gaelen Morse/File Photo." The shooting date and time according to camera data is: "17/09/2022 – 20:41:19."
The image used in the false claim was cropped from the original picture, and its brightness was enhanced, as shown in the picture comparison.
Trump's outfit in the 2022 photo and his dress at the current party convention are very similar, potentially adding to the confusion. However, Vance's outfits in the two photos are different, further confirming the age of the image in the false claim.
In addition, numerous agency photos show Trump with a bandage on his right ear during his appearance at the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 78-year-old took to the stage with a white bandage on his ear and was officially chosen as the candidate for the presidential election in November.
The claim that Trump's ear is uninjured, and that the photo shown proves this, is therefore demonstrably false.
Edited by: M. Gagnon