In May 2026, social media users shared various images purportedly showing U.S. President Donald Trump with messy, disheveled hair.
For example, one popular Threads post (archived) featured a low-quality image of the president with flat, thinning, matted hair. The caption read, "This is the photo of trump that the world press released of trump from China. The White House hasn't been able to pull it down."
Trump visited China from May 13 to May 15 for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
That picture also circulated on Facebook (archived), Reddit (archived) and X (archived). The Facebook user claimed the alleged photo was taken at a White House Mother's Day event on May 8, not during his trip to China.
Other Facebook posts included a different image (archived), or trio of images, of Trump with windswept hair and a receding hairline. Both Facebook accounts claimed these showed the U.S. president before departing for China.
Another Threads user (archived) called out the first image as fake and the second photo as real, writing: "It's weird how there's a fake image of a balding Trump doing the rounds, when this certified Getty image is right there! You're just handing them the ammunition to fire back with 'fAkE nEwS.'"
Ultimately, the latter Threads post proved to be correct. The first image, in which Trump's hair appears matted and flat, shows signs of editing, while the set of images featuring the second photo, in which his hairline is exposed by the wind, are authentic. Here's how we know.
Matted-hair Trump
The low-quality image of Trump with matted hair is not real and was not taken during his trip to China.
That image is almost identical (the hair being the major exception) to an Associated Press photo captured on May 8, when Trump hosted a Mothers' Day luncheon at the White House. In both the edited image and the original AP shot, Trump can be seen wearing the same suit, standing in front of the same American flags and pulling the same open-mouthed expression.
Reuters also published a picture of Trump speaking at the Mother's Day luncheon. While the Reuters photo is different to AP's picture, his suit and the background are the same. In both AP's and Reuters' photographs, Trump's hair is consistent with its normal style.
It was not possible to confirm the source of the fake version of the AP image.
Windy-haired Trump
In contrast, the Getty Images and AP archives support the authenticity of the photos of the wind tossing Trump's hair and revealing his hairline.
The most commonly shared version of this picture of Trump's hairline is a Getty photograph captured on May 12, shortly before he left for Beijing.
Other commonly shared images from that day show Trump walking through the wind with his tie blowing sideways. Both Getty and AP captured such photos.
The AP's photographers even snapped a photo only showing Trump's hair.
While these authentic pictures feature images of Trump's untidy hair, none of them match the visuals in the fake image analyzed above.
Snopes has previously covered examples of fake images circulating alongside genuine photos. For instance, we separated fact from science fiction when people shared pictures of the Artemis II NASA mission around the moon.