Updated May 06, 2024, 10:24 p.m. ET.
A photo of Donald Trump has been shared repeatedly in Chinese-language social media posts that claim it shows the presumptive Republican presidential nominee watching a China state-run broadcaster’s news program on his tablet at an April banquet.
But the photo has been digitally doctored. The original photo, which began to circulate online as early as November 2023, shows Trump looking at a playlist on digital music service Spotify.
The claim was shared on the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo on April 24, 2024.
“While attending a banquet at around 7:00 pm last night, Trump was bored and pulled out his tablet to kill time by watching CCTV News,” the claim reads.
The claim was accompanied by a photo showing the back of a person resembling the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holding a tablet PC, with what looks like a news broadcast visible on the screen.
CCTV, or China Central Television, is the national television broadcaster of China.
Comments on the post suggest that some users were misled by the claim.
“A must-watch program for successful people,” one user said in the comment section.
“What an international channel,” another wrote.
The same photo and claim have been shared on other Chinese social media platforms, including a video-sharing website bilibili.
But the claim is false. The photo has been digitally doctored.
Checking Spotify playlist
A reverse image search on Google found the corresponding photo started to circulate online as early as November 2023, as seen here and here.
The photo shows Trump sitting next to his wife Melania Trump at a banquet with his back turned to the camera, holding a tablet with its screen showing a Spotify playlist.
The photo quickly went viral online, leading to coverage by several media outlets, including Newsweek .
A closer look at the doctored image shows that there is a curve in on the tablet, a sign of digital manipulation. The width of the screen is also not consistent on all sides, in contrast to the original image where the screen is flat.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the original photo (left) and the digitally doctored photo (right):
Altered several times
The original image had previously been altered several times. An X account posted a version of the image showing Trump playing a video game in one example.
Separately, the British tabloid Daily Mail released a visual parody depicting the former president watching Nigel Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party.
This edited photo was later shared on Farage’s official X account with the caption, “So great, so great!”
Neither the posters of the original photo nor Trump’s media team have responded to inquiries regarding the exact time and location of the image as of this writing.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke, Taejun Kang and Malcolm Foster.
This story was updated to clarify Donald Trump’s current status.
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