Image of Donald Trump wading through flood water is AI-generated | Fact check
The claim: Image shows Trump wading through flood waters after Hurricane Helene
A Sept. 30 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) appears to show former President Donald Trump walking through a flooded street while wearing an orange life vest.
"I don't think FB wants this picture on FB," reads the post's caption. "They have been deleting it."
The post was shared more than 160,000 times in two days. The image was also shared on Instagram.
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Experts and an AI-detection tool confirmed the image is AI-generated. There's no evidence Trump waded through flood water in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Trump flood picture is AI
Trump surveyed the damage from Hurricane Helene in the battleground state of Georgia on Sept. 30 and spoke to residents affected by the Category 4 storm, which killed at least 180 people and left almost a million homes and businesses without power.
But the image, which was shared the same day and shows the former president wading through a flooded street, isn't legitimate.
Walter Scheirer, an engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame, told USA TODAY the image is likely "the product of a generative AI algorithm."
"One key giveaway is that the clothing of the two men appears to be dry," Scheirer said. "If they were wading through water, they'd be soaked – an effect that can be seen in the numerous real photos from the hurricane. Further, this is a rather low-quality rendering, with visible unnatural artifacts around the splashing water and the hood of the truck in the background."
James O'Brien, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, similarly said the image was digitally generated. He pointed out several inconsistencies with Trump's appearance in the image, such as the life jacket strap seemingly running over the right side of his face and his face appearing smudged.
"I believe that Trump's face was added to another image and that the software that added the image made an error when it was blending the edges," O'Brien said.
The picture contains several other signs of digital fabrication as well, including Trump and the man beside him having only four fingers on each hand and the lettering on their hat and life jackets being illegible. AI generators struggle to generate realistic hands and legible text.
Hive Moderation's AI-detection tool found that the image was 99.9% likely to be AI-generated.
Fact check: Unrelated storm footage falsely linked to Hurricane Helene
There are no credible reports of the former president wading through flood waters while visiting Georgia. Pictures captured during his trip show him wearing a black suit with a red tie, not the blue long-sleeve shirt shown in the viral image.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Lead Stories and PolitiFact also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
Walter Scheirer, Oct. 2, Email exchange with USA TODAY
James O'Brien, Oct. 2, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Hive Moderation, accessed Oct. 2, AI-Generated Content Detection
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: AI image of Trump goes viral after Hurricane Helene | Fact check