Fact Check: Photos of Donald Trump Being Arrested Are Fake

The images were generated using artificial intelligence software.

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An AI-generated image of Trump via @EliotHiggins on Twitter.

This article has been updated with a statement from Eliot Higgins, who created the images being circulated.

Images are circulating online that purport to show the arrest of former President Donald Trump by New York police officers. The images are not authentic. They were produced using Midjourney, an artificial text-to-image generator that has the capacity to render photo-realistic images based on a written verbal description. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqD9J8kvGfj/

The images have caught fire on social media amid news that Trump could be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on charges relating to an alleged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump himself has recently predicted that he would be arrested on these charges, although the date on which he said he expected to be taken into custody has come and gone.  

The fake images were originally generated by Eliot Higgins, the founder and creative director of Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group. Higgins posted the photos as part of a viral Twitter thread of March 20 in which he clearly communicated that they were made artificially and not to be taken as actual photographs.  

In a different Twitter thread dated March 16, Higgins posted images that he said were attempts to create “realistic news images” using Midjourney’s latest Version 5 software. These include fabricated images of a peace summit between Presidents Biden and Putin, as well as fabricated images of Trump’s arrest. The viral images from the March 20 thread appear to have been created using the same software. 

Higgins provided The Dispatch Fact Check with the following statement regarding the thread of fabricated images: “It was mainly intended to be an example of Midjourney’s capabilities, I’ve done a few threads like that before, but this one went viral. It wasn’t intended to deceive anyone.”

Donald Trump has not been arrested at the time of writing. 

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.          

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  1. Alex G

    Obviously fake. There’s only like four cops in the pick. They can’t haul off his 400 lb meat sack with only four people.

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    Rdpulfer

    In addition to the aforementioned finger count, these also look way too clear to be actual photos. Between that and the over-the-top nature of them, it's clear they are AI art, though I'm sure someone not familiar with AI art could be fooled in the right circumstances.

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  3. Raincheck

    “ I ran. I ran so beautifully. No one has ever run like I ran. People tell me I’m the fastest runner they’ve ever seen. I took an ambulatory test once and passed with flying colors.”

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    1. Walter.L.Appling

      The running confirmed the fakery.

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  4. Drsterrett

    Thanks for clearing this up for us.

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    Bono Vox

    Deep fake meets fake news. Get ready for Not Necessarily the News being based not necessarily on a true story

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    JohnM.

    This is like fact-checking a fable. Too easy.

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  7. Hartzlk

    Ooo, I think I see a tell tale sign of a fake - the finger count problem.
    The officer's hand on Trump's stomach seems to be missing a finger.

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      Mike Kupfer

      And there's something off with the legs in the lower right quadrant of the right-hand picture.

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    Mudskipper

    The "photo" of Trump doing a full out run is obviously fake. I suspect he hasn't run in years.

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    1. J.Barron

      He's got heal spurs, after all ...

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