In July 2024, a viral photograph appeared to show former U.S. President Donald Trump's side-profile with a very large double chin. The image was shared hundreds of times on X.
(X user @davesumnersmith)
The same image became a viral sensation eight years earlier, when Trump was first running for president in 2016, and was dubbed "Unflattering Trump" on social media according to KnowYourMeme, a site dedicated to investigating the origins of memes and viral phenomenon.
The above image is fake. It is a digitally manipulated version of a real photograph of Trump taken by Jessica Kourkounis for Getty Images during an October 2016 campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania:
(Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)
The original image shows the same angle with the same shadows on Trump's cheek, but does not have the exaggerated proportions seen in the X post. The chin in the "Unflattering Trump" version was clearly digitally manipulated to appear bigger than it actually is, and the X post shows a zoomed-in and lightened version of the Getty Images photograph.
Trump has frequently criticized the news media for showing pictures of him taken from unflattering angles. In 2023, he wrote on his social media app, TruthSocial, "Why doesn't Fox and Friends show all of the Polls where I am beating Biden, by a lot. They just won't do it! Also, they purposely show the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big 'orange' one with my chin pulled way back. They think they are getting away with something, they're not. Just like 2016 all over again…And then they want me to debate!"
According to a 2016 Politico report, then-President-elect Trump also criticized NBC News for using unflattering photos of him. Per an anonymous source, during a private meeting with television executives, Trump told NBC News' president, Deborah Turness, the network won't use a nice picture of him, but chose "this picture of me," and he made a face with a double chin.