Rumors alleging that U.S. first lady Melania Trump once appeared in what people called a "lesbian photo shoot" in a magazine circulated online in early June 2026 as Pride Month kicked off.
Users online posted an alleged series of black-and-white photographs purportedly featuring Trump in 1995 alongside another woman, apparently nude and embracing. The posts said the photographs were for a French magazine called Max.
The photographs appeared to be authentic and were widely reported on in 2016, during Donald Trump's first bid for the White House. However, we have opted to leave this claim unrated until we can acquire firsthand confirmation of the authenticity of the photographs.
Snopes reached out to the first lady's office for comment and the National Library of France for a digital archive of the magazine in question.
In late July and early August 2016, the New York Post published a series of articles with headlines such as "The Ogle Office" and "Melania Trump's girl-on-girl photos from racy shoot revealed." The outlet also created a video of New Yorkers reacting to seeing the images.
The "girl-on-girl" photos referenced a series of images by photographer Ale de Basseville featuring Trump alongside model Emma Erikkson in which they appeared together naked and holding each other. De Basseville has a print of one of the photographs available for purchase on his website.
The description of the photo read:
From Antiquity to Renaissance women were considered like goddesses. Traveling my only vision to bring art and fascination through women in love to jump into a post expressionism. The bridge of unconscious immortal way of woman spirits to become one day reality. Eastern Europe girl's coming from nowhere projecting to the international history's passing over legendary Hollywood stars to become the First Lady.
The image on de Basseville's website matched the one shown in the online New York Post story. The images circulating on social media featured the same women in different poses, with hair styling and makeup that matched the one referenced in the Post.
The photos were reportedly originally published in the February 1997 issue of France's Max magazine, which featured model Cindy Crawford on the cover. However, the Post initially misreported the timing of the photoshoot as 1995 and the publication date of the photos as 1996, which at the time spawned debate about the veracity of Trump's immigration timeline.
The paper later corrected the dates in the story, but that erroneous reporting was likely the reason posts about the photos in 2026 gave their date as 1995.
The Post's decision to publish the photographs at all was widely criticized in the media at the time, with outlets such as The Washington Post, The Independent, Salon, The Wrap and the Chicago Tribune reporting on the backlash.
The Hollywood Reporter reported at the time that a spokesperson for Donald Trump's campaign said the photos were a "celebration of the human body as art" and that "there's nothing to be embarrassed about."
Before becoming first lady, Melania Trump was a model who did a variety of work, including an ad for Camel cigarettes and a nude photo shoot with GQ in 2000.
Mary Jordan's 2020 biography of the first lady, "The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump," reported that Eriksson described Trump as "quiet and shy." Jordan wrote that Trump was not paid for the session and that Erikkson and Trump "hardly spoke during the shoot, which involved them lying together nude in several poses, cheek to cheek, with their arms around each other."
Jordan's book also offered additional context for the "lesbian photo shoot" element of the claim, aside from an assumption that could be made based on the photos themselves. She wrote, "Max [magazine] handed the photos to Ann Scott, a young French novelist and former model, and asked her to create a story to accompany them," which became an erotic love story between the two women.
"The Art of Her Deal" also said that "the Max photos remained a little-known part of Melania's past until her husband decided to run for president."
While this claim appeared to be mostly true, albeit with some misdated information and missing context, Snopes does not rely on secondhand reporting for its ratings. We will update this piece with a rating should we get a response from Trump or are able to procure a copy of the magazine in question.