In late July 2024, social media users on X and Threads (archived) shared a photo purportedly showing actor Ryan Reynolds wearing a black T-shirt that read: "Kamala removes nasty orange stains."
The slogan was a reference to U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former U.S. President Donald Trump, who are all but guaranteed to face each other in the 2024 presidential election on Nov. 5.
As of this writing, more than 183,000 people had viewed the X post, with some commenters apparently believing the image was real.
One person wrote: "Another reason to love Ryan Reynolds," while another replied: "So now I can't watch his movies, oh well."
Various online retailers sold versions of the T-shirt design, and the logo was a nod to the branding of Tide laundry detergent.
There were numerous signs the picture was not authentic and was heavily manipulated.
First, an unidentifiable tattoo design was present on the inside of Reynolds' left forearm in the fake image. However, multiple photos taken at San Diego Comic-Con on July 25, 2024, and published by Getty Images, showed the actor does not have permanent ink tattooed on that part of his body.
Another photo of Reynolds, alongside his "Deadpool & Wolverine" co-star Hugh Jackman, taken at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con, also showed no such tattoo on his left forearm.
Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds appear at San Diego Comic-Con on July 25, 2024. (Getty Images)
No credible news outlets wrote articles about the "Deadpool" actor wearing the "Kamala" T-shirt, and no photos on his official Instagram account show him dressed in it.
Snopes was unable to determine the source of the picture; a reverse image search on Google showed only reposts of the manipulated photograph on social media. We cropped the photo in several different ways, such as removing Reynolds' head and torso, but still found no matching image. We also uploaded it to Getty Images for a search that did not yield a match in video or still image form.
Additionally, inconsistencies in the lighting, shadows, and texture of the logo and text on the shirt suggested the slogan was either digitally added to an existing image of Reynolds, or the actor's head was imposed onto another man's body. While the logo on the T-shirt looked smooth, computer generated folds created the illusion of rumpled fabric. Meanwhile, the rest of the shirt had natural folds that would appear as a person is in motion. These discrepancies further suggested the image was inauthentic.
Reynolds, who was born in Canada, officially became a U.S. citizen in 2018. He voted in the U.S. presidential election for the first time in 2020, sharing the moment on X: "Yesterday I voted for the first time in an American Presidential election. I s*** you not, it was among the most exciting things I've ever done. I'm optimistic about the future. I'm excited to be a part of this process."
Digitally manipulated T-shirts on famous people are a common form of misinformation we've encountered at Snopes. Learn how to spot such images here.