Image shows Trump at golf course days before shooting | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
·2 min read
3

The claim: Image shows Trump golfing after assassination attempt with no ear injury

A July 23 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows former President Donald Trump dressed in golf attire with his right ear clearly visible and showing no sign of the injury suffered during the shooting at his rally.

“Golfing as usual. No bandage on the ear. Interesting,” the post’s caption reads.

The post was shared more than 300 times in two days. A similar version of the claim also circulated widely on Threads before it was deleted, and similar versions were reposted thousands of times on X, formerly Twitter.

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Fact check roundup: False claims about Trump rally shooting spread online

Our rating: False

The image predates the July 13 rally shooting. The professional golfer who posted the video containing it said it was recorded during the first week of July.

Image taken from video recorded in early July, not after shooting

The shooting at Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killed one person, critically injured two more and left the former president with a wounded ear. He wore a bandage over the ear during his appearances at the Republican National Convention the following week in Milwaukee.

But the image in the Threads post was taken before the assassination attempt – not after it – according to the pro golfer who shared the video containing it.

Fact check: Video of Trump wearing bandage on left ear at RNC is altered

The image of Trump in the post was captured from a TikTok video posted by Bryson DeChambeau to promote his YouTube show in which the LIV Golf pro plays rounds with high-profile guests.

While the episode with Trump was posted July 23, it was recorded during the first week of the month, DeChambeau said in both an X post and in the first comment on the YouTube video. That timeline puts its recording before both the rally and DeChambeau's trip to Europe to compete in two events – a LIV Golf tournament in Spain from July 12-14, and the British Open in Scotland the following weekend.

On multiple occasions, social media users have shared images of Trump from before the shooting and claimed they were captured after the incident. USA TODAY previously debunked false claims that an image of Trump with Sen. JD Vance, his running mate, was taken in July 2024 and that a separate image shows Trump playing golf a day after the assassination attempt.

USA TODAY reached out to the Threads user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Image of Trump at golf course is from early July | Fact check

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