An image depicting former U.S. President Donald Trump with Jeffrey Epstein – the financier and convicted child sex trafficker who was found dead by suicide in 2019 – sitting side by side on what appears to be a private plane mades its rounds on the internet again in late summer 2024. Although we have previously reported on real photos of the two together, there are clear visual indications of AI-generation (artificial intelligence), including Epstein appearing to have three legs and a mysterious face being present to the right of Trump's head.
The image appeared on numerous X accounts, with one post by account @raggapegs racking up more than 300,900 views and 10,000 likes.
(X user @raggapegs)
Commenters pointed out the dodgy appearance of the image in other X posts, with one saying: "Fake AI image, you're welcome to delete this tweet." "If this photo is fake you can be sued," another said.
When run through AI detection software Illuminarty, the results came back with 99.4% AI probability. When checked with Hive, another AI detection program, the result came back as 100% likely to have been AI-generated, as shown below.
(Image via Hive)
Lastly, when the image was searched using the Google Images reverse-image search tool, the vast majority of results were X posts, with a remaining few originating from other social media platforms. If this were a credible and authentic photo, other major outlets would have reported on the photo and we would be able to find the photographer or company that owns the image. As evidenced by a Google search, no credible news outlets have ever published such a photo.
In sum, because visual cues, such as Epstein's three legs and the floating face behind Trump, indicate that the image was AI-generated and not authentic, we have rated this image as fake.