FACT CHECK: Does This Photo Show Donald Trump With Members Of The KKK?

Varun Hukeri | General Assignment & Analysis Reporter

An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows President Donald Trump “celebrating his release from Quarantine” with members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

Verdict: False

Trump is not pictured in the image. British photographer Alison Jackson took the staged photo of an “uncannily styled” Trump look-alike actor.

Fact Check:

The caption suggests that the photo, purportedly showing Trump, was taken after the president was discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center on Monday, saying, Trump here celebrating his release from Quarantine, forgets his mask.” Trump had announced on Twitter early Oct. 2 that he and the first lady had tested positive for COVID-19.

Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact discovered the photo does not show Trump, but rather a look-alike. The photo comes from Jackson’s “Mental Images” exhibition featuring multiple portraits of Trump look-alikes in controversial situations. The exhibition also includes look-alikes of Princess Diana, Kim Kardashian West, Elton John, Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy.

Her exhibition is described, in part, on her website as “startlingly realistically staged affairs that cast uncannily styled actors into an entirely fathomable projection of a future that could have been.” A 10-second video of the photoshoot for the image being shared on Facebook was uploaded to Jackson’s Facebook page June 3.

After the first presidential debate between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, the president was criticized for not clearly denouncing “white supremacist and right-wing militia” groups, according to NPR. He later told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he condemned the KKK and similar groups during an Oct. 1 interview. (RELATED: Viral Image Claims To Show Trump’s Parents Wearing KKK Robes)

Trump in a Sept. 25 press release revealed the Platinum Plan for Black America, which proposes prosecuting the Ku Klux Klan and Antifa as terrorist organizations, among other things, according to CNN.

Varun Hukeri

General Assignment & Analysis Reporter
Follow Varun on Twitter

Trending