Snopes finds AI warning signs in viral Trump-Harp golf-course image but leaves claim unrated

A viral image purporting to show Donald Trump kissing Natalie Harp on a golf course displayed several signs of artificial intelligence generation or editing. But the claim was left unrated because the evidence differed between a clearer version and a lower-resolution copy. Snopes' fact-check, published Sept. 15, found no credible source confirming that the image was authentic. A White House official described the picture circulating online as “clearly a fake photo.” The images spread across X before being widely posted on Threads and Instagram after Trump’s visit to Ireland, where he golfed at a Trump Organization-owned course. The timing suggested the scene was meant to depict an encounter on Sept. 13, when Trump’s calendar listed “Executive Time.” Reverse-image searches on both versions traced the oldest example to a thumbnail for a Sept. 14 YouTube video by political commentator Keith Edwards. Edwards had previously acknowledged using an AI tool to generate the thumbnail image, though he said that he had not created or altered the underlying picture and had not independently verified its origin or whether the woman was Harp. Searches did not locate the image in established news coverage, Getty Images or Associated Press archives. Neither photographs of the Irish golf course nor Google Maps satellite imagery showed the trees visible in the purported kissing scene. The White House did not provide or confirm comparison photographs from that weekend. The clearer image carried the strongest technical warnings. OpenAI’s verification tool detected a watermark consistent with imagery generated or edited with the company’s AI tools. It also identified what appeared to be six fingers on the woman’s hand holding a golf club. Because her face was turned away from the camera, however, the person shown could not be confirmed as Harp. Hany Farid said the high-resolution picture was “clearly derived from the lower-resolution version” and contained a SynthID watermark. He said the lower-quality copy offered little to assess, although its poor resolution was itself a concern because the apparent narrow depth of field suggested it may have been taken with a DSLR rather than a mobile phone. Farid described authenticity as inconclusive. The lower-resolution version was too blurred to show features such as an excess number of fingers, and OpenAI’s tool did not find a watermark in that copy. A test of a real photograph partly edited with AI found that the tool still detected a watermark after the image had been cropped to remove the altered portion. A separate Newsweek fact-check reached a firmer conclusion, rating the claim false and saying the two circulating pictures appeared to be versions of one scene rather than independently corroborating photographs. Its report likewise cited the apparent sixth finger and the absence of a matching image in White House, AP, Reuters and Getty materials. But Newsweek reported that OpenAI’s verification tool found no SynthID watermark or trusted C2PA record linking the files to OpenAI products, while cautioning that this would not rule out another AI system. The fact-check also rejected a separate claim that the image was actually a 2017 photograph of Trump exchanging a cheek-kiss with Norwegian golfer Suzann Pettersen. That encounter took place away from a golf course, and both Pettersen’s and Trump’s clothing differed from the outfits in the viral image.