Supposed mug shots of former President Donald Trump have circulated on social media for weeks, beginning after his March 18 Truth Social post announcing his impending arrest. In some pictures, he’s wearing an orange or black jumpsuit; in others, he wears a suit and tie. Some images show him with hair; others show him bald.
None of them are real.
That’s because Trump took no mug shot. He turned himself in April 4 at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, where he was arraigned on 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records for hush money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels and others. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. He was fingerprinted. He was not handcuffed.
The fake mug shots have been shared on many platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. They were created using artificial intelligence programs such as Midjourney, a generator that creates images from text prompts. PolitiFact previously debunked several photos shared in March that claimed to show Trump being taken into custody or in a mug shot.
Here are some of the fake mug shots that generated the most attention.
Roger Stone shared a montage on Twitter
Shortly after Trump’s arraignment, his longtime ally and former adviser Roger Stone tweeted a montage of four AI-generated mug shots. A graphic accompanying the photos said “Donald Trump still did nothing wrong.” Stone added the hashtag #Trump2024.
.@realDonaldTrump Still did nothing wrong .#Trump2024 pic.twitter.com/LTqvmJxxvG
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) April 4, 2023
The fake mug shots show random numbers and letters in the background. In these images, Trump is seen wearing a lapel pin. In real life, photos show Trump did not wear a lapel pin to his arraignment.
Trump’s campaign and others monetized fake images
According to a PolitiFact reporter who received the email, the former president’s 2024 campaign team included a fake mug shot in a donor call to action that read: “Do you stand with President Trump, Friend? Please make a contribution of $47 or more to WIN in 2024 — and we’ll send you your very own ‘NOT GUILTY’ T-Shirt for FREE.”
The T-shirt showed a photo of Trump appearing to hold a placard — in the style of mug shots — that says “President Donald J. Trump, 45-47, 04-04-2023.” According to The New York Times, “45-47” refers to Trump serving as the 45th president and potentially becoming the future 47th president.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who traveled with Trump to New York to protest his arraignment and flew back with him to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for his speech later that night, shared a link to buy the $36 T-Shirt on her social media pages.
“President Trump is NOT GUILTY. He is the ONLY man fighting to Make America Great Again! Stand with Trump,” she wrote.
President Trump is NOT GUILTY. He is the ONLY man fighting to Make America Great Again! Stand with Trump >>> https://t.co/xMa3boPJWg
— Marjorie Taylor Greene đŸ‡ºđŸ‡¸ (@mtgreenee) April 4, 2023
Images shared on TikTokÂ
TikTok had no shortage of fake Trump mug shots, including one posted March 21. It showed a screenshot of a Twitter post with Trump in an orange jumpsuit. We traced the tweet and found that it had been shared long before Trump’s arraignment. Despite being fake, the images received thousands of interactions.
@politifact Replying to @clairsiplayspogo Don’t fall for fake mugshots of #DonaldTrump! Trump didn’t have a mugshot taken at his arraignment, but that hasn’t stopped Republicans, Democrats and even his own campaign from sharing fake images. #trump #indictment #arraignment #ai #fake #mugshot #artificialintelligence #news #factcheck #fyp #LearnOnTikTok ♬ Astro Beat – Staysee
Some Democrats shared fake images
Trump’s allies weren’t the only ones sharing the fake images. Jon Cooper, founding chairman of super political action committee The Democratic Coalition, tweeted an altered photo of Trump holding a placard in front of a height chart. “Holy s—! I can’t believe #Trumpmugshot isn’t already a hashtag!” Cooper wrote. “Please retweet it far and wide — let’s make #Trumpmugshot go viral!”
Occupy Democrats, a liberal group with large social media followings, shared on Facebook a Twitter post that included one of the fake images and said: “On a level from 1-10 how happy are you that Trump has been arrested?” The Facebook post has received thousands of reactions and comments.
This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here.
