A photograph of a blond boy circulating on Facebook allegedly showed Donald Trump in his childhood. The caption underneath read “A young Donald Trump, 1952.” This viral post from “Pictures in History” has now been shared over 5.4 thousand times and passed over 20 thousand likes.
However, the claim that the photo belongs to a young Trump is inaccurate. The post appeared on Facebook attracting almost 7 thousand comments does not show Trump in his early childhood; nor was it taken in 1952. The image is created through Snapchat’s new “Baby Filter” built into the app.
The photo is manipulated
The photo appeared on May 17, 2019 claimed to show Donald Trump during his boyhood. However, a careful look at the picture raises doubts regarding the authenticity of the photo. The part between the face and the hair is blurred which suggests a potential manipulation in the picture. A reverse image search linked the photo to Trump’s original video shot in 1988 in a talk show hosted by Oprah Gail Winfrey.
The video in which Trump tells Oprah what he would do as president had widely been shared back in 2015. A frame from the video was used in one of Snapchat’s filters to make him look much younger.
Snapchat’s new “Baby Filter”
Snapchat, a picture and message sharing platform, introduced “Baby Filter” in the first half of May, 2019. New Snapchat face filter makes people look like a kid, allowing them to see supposedly younger versions of themselves.
Snopes, a US-based fact-checking site, ran the filter through the same photo and proved that the picture was created via Snapchat.
The picture was manipulated for a second time using the black-and-white filter to make it appear as old and perhaps historical.
This has led to a number of similar posts claiming to show celebrities in their childhood. Though most of them had no intention to harm, the filter has potentials to deceive.
Different versions of the filter have also been applied to TV and film celebrities since.
The photo claiming to show Trump was also shared during the time the filter reached its peak. The publishing date on Facebook (May 17) also gives clue that the picture is related to Snapchat’s new filter since the date corresponds to the filter’s release date.
How did Trump look like then?
Some photographs dating to Trump’s childhood can be found online. The photo below shows Trump (fourth from the left, back row, next to the teacher) at the primary school called Kew-ForestSchool.
Another photo from his boyhood.
In brief, the claim that the picture shows a young Trump is inaccurate. A frame from the video, in which Oprah hosts Trump in 1988, was extracted and the new Snapchat “Baby Filter” along with a black-and-white filter were applied. The picture was manipulated and does not show Trump in 1952.
