An image purportedly depicting President Donald Trump and a young girl circulated online in early 2026, confusing social media users, including a reader who reached out to Snopes to verify it.
Snopes previously fact-checked another version of the image in which the young girl's face was redacted and found there was no evidence it was authentic. The later version circulating in early 2026 (archived) allegedly showed the girl's uncensored face.
There is no proof the version of the image featuring the girl's face is authentic. The redacted version appeared to stem from a YouTube account with a history of posting click-bait content, and the version in question appeared to feature tampering using artificial intelligence or digital editing software.
For example, the shadow cast by the girl onto her hair is harsh, unrealistic and inconsistent with the shadows cast by Trump in the unredacted version.
Many users replying to the original, redacted version of the image appeared to believe it authentically depicted Trump with an unknown girl, while others claimed she was Ivanka Trump, the president's eldest daughter. The version of the image showing the girl's face above also traces back to December 2025, when one X user who shared it (archived) amassed more than 4 million views of their post. It was captioned: "When the photo was redacted, they said 'That's Ivanka.' What are they gonna say now?"
There were multiple signs the redacted version is not authentic; however, we were not able to definitively determine whether the image was AI-generated.
First, the date in the upper right corner — "9 1'02" — is nonsensical. This could be camera malfunction, though it could also be an artifact of AI generation or an intentional edit to make the origins of the image difficult to trace.
(X user @keithedwards)
The earliest version of that image we could find appeared on social media user Keith Edwards' platforms, including YouTube and X (archived). We reached out to Edwards via X and Instagram seeking comment about whether he created the image and whether it was AI-generated or otherwise altered, and will update this report should we learn more.
While Edwards' YouTube account used the image as the thumbnail for a video titled, "The FBI forgot to redact this," and he mentioned "one file they forgot to redact" involving Trump "and a 14-year-old girl" (at 0:22), Edwards did not show the thumbnail image during the 10-minute video, indicating it was likely intended as clickbait.
(YouTube account @keithedwards)
Edwards' YouTube account is filled with other, similarly shocking thumbnails with expressive overlays of Edwards' face combined with large, vague, bright yellow captions. These are all classic signs of content designed to be clickbait — content meant to attract viewers for ad revenue.
Reputable news media outlets have widely reported any appearance of Trump in the files that were released to the public on Dec. 19, and those that were released later, but these reports did not include either version of the image in question. A Google search of the keywords "trump" "child" "epstein" and "plane" revealed results related to other claims, but did not turn up the images in question. If either were authentic and still publicly available, reputable news media outlets likely would have reported on them.
(Google.com)
While the Trump administration did receive criticism for at least 16 files disappearing from the government site after the DOJ released an initial batch on Dec. 19 with no notice to the public, Edwards' posts claimed the redacted image had not been deleted. However, it was not among the files we reviewed.
Snopes has reported on several images of Trump with underage girls that are fake. We've also extensively reported on Trump's relationship with Epstein over the years.