In November 2025, a photo circulated online purportedly showing a man wearing a red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap and a red T-shirt reading: "I don't care if Trump is a pedophile."
One X user posted (archived) the picture with a seemingly sarcastic caption referencing U.S. President Donald Trump's supporters, writing: "It is not a cult."
(@BraddrofliT/X)
Numerous social media users shared the photo on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads and X (archived). Readers also contacted Snopes asking about the alleged picture.
(Jesse Janopoulos/Facebook)
In short, the photograph had been doctored and was therefore fake.
A reverse-image search using Google Lens located the original, unaltered photo on Flickr.com. That Flickr.com post revealed the man's T-shirt originally read: "Trump Pence 2020" and "Keep America Great!"
The Flickr.com post included a photographer credit to Lorie Shaull and an upload date of Oct. 5, 2018. Snopes contacted Shaull for confirmation that she captured the picture.
The caption read: "A Trump supporter waits to get into Trump's rally at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minnesota." Trump's rally in Rochester took place that same year on Oct. 4. Shaull posted numerous other photos the following day from the same event.
Getty Images' library also contained photographs from the rally.
Why the fake photo circulated in November 2025
The fake picture spread online amid the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's Nov. 12 release of more than 20,000 documents related to the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including many emails to and from Epstein that mentioned Trump.
Democrats on the committee also released three emails, including one saying Trump "knew about the girls." One of the other emails from Epstein to his confidant and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell said Trump "spent hours" at Epstein's house with a sex-trafficking victim.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Snopes, in part: "The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump."
We previously reported on numerous claims regarding Trump's relationship with Epstein, including a rumor that the president spent Thanksgiving with him in 2017. Snopes also looked into multiple photos showing the pair together and verified Trump saying in 2002 that Epstein was a "terrific guy," adding: "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."