Donald Trump seen through a plane window, beside a large printed sheet: real or AI?

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Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images. Posted on X by @PollTracker2024 · Shown as an embedded post · Source

REAL

This is real.

How sure we areVery high

Based on 2 strong and 0 supporting pieces of evidence.

What we found

This photograph shows President Donald Trump through a window of Air Force One, looking at a large printed sheet about the Kennedy Center. It was taken after the plane landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on 16 September 2026, when he was returning from a campaign trip to Gastonia, North Carolina. When it spread online, people asked whether the picture was real or made up. It was taken by Brendan Smialowski, a photographer for the news agency AFP, and Getty Images published it with his name and the date. Getty's caption adds that, the day before, Trump had threatened to keep the Kennedy Center closed after a judge ruled that his name could not be added to its front. Snopes checked the photo and rated it true. If a news photo looks too strange to be real, search the big photo agencies for the photographer's own caption.

Key facts

Original source: Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images. Posted on X by @PollTracker2024
First published: Not recorded
Earlier appearances: Not recorded
The claim you saw: No caption recorded
Signs of AI: None that decide it

The evidence, strongest first

Strong Decides the answer

Published fact-checkSnopes, 18 September 2026↗Original sourceGetty Images, photo by Brendan Smialowski (AFP), 16 September 2026↗

Supporting Points the same way

None.

Weak Shown, not relied on

How it looksThe letters on the sheet are clean and are cut off by the edge of the window, as they would be in a real photo. The cap, the hair and the small flag all look normal. But nothing in a picture can prove it is real. The proof here is that we know who took it and when.

Detector scores are often wrong, so they never decide a verdict here.

What we couldn’t establish

Anything about the moment it shows beyond what the sources above record. If you know more, tell us.

Bottom line

Real: a published fact-check traced it.

See the original ↗Think we’re wrong?

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67% of players thought it was AI

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Donald Trump seen through a plane window, beside a large printed sheet: real or AI?

This is real.

Strong Decides the answer

Supporting Points the same way

Weak Shown, not relied on

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