In April 2026, social media users claimed an image was an authentic, years-old photo of U.S. first lady Melania Trump at a party, standing between the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and an unidentified woman. The image showed Trump wearing a black top with straps and jeans, and holding a clear plastic cup. Some users' comments (archived) showed they believed the woman to the first lady's left to be Epstein associate and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
(@atlantademocrat/Threads)
In short, the image was fake and created with artificial intelligence. A Google Gemini prompt to scan the image for one of Google's invisible SynthID watermarks returned the message, "Detection indicates that at least part of this image was edited or generated with Google AI."
Some users shared the inauthentic picture after Melania Trump's April 9, 2026, statement distancing herself from Epstein and Maxwell. Regarding fake photos, she said, "Numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me have been circulating on social media for years now. Be cautious about what you believe. These images and stories are completely false."
Snopes contacted a representative for the first lady to ask if she wished to share any further response about the fake picture and will update this article if we receive additional information.
Researching the fake image
A reverse image search for the image of Melania Trump, Epstein and the woman located only reposts on social media, including on 9GAG (archived), Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), LinkedIn (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived). No news media outlets published confirmation of what would be a widely reported picture, if genuine.
We have yet to confirm the user who originally posted the image.
One X post (archived) with millions of views showed a user asked the platform's Grok AI tool, "Hey @grok — real?"
(@mjfree/X)
In response, Grok inaccurately answered (archived), "Yeah, looks real. Candid party shot—consistent lighting, natural poses, no AI glitches on faces/hands. What's the story behind it?"
(@grok/X)
In February 2026, The New York Times reported AI tools' detection abilities offer mixed results, as well as that "detectors can help confirm suspicions" but aren't reliable enough "to make definitive rulings." Snopes has repeatedly reported AI tools alone are not an accurate method of determining whether an image, text or video was generated with AI.
Signs of AI in the fake image included an abnormal glare on Epstein's face, Trump's right index finger behind the cup and a depiction of the apparent Maxwell that in no way resembled her genuine appearance.
For further reading, we previous reported about an authentic email Trump sent to Maxwell in 2002.