Viral photos claiming to show United States Secret Service agents smiling while rushing to protect former US President Donald Trump from gun shots during an attempted assassination in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were altered using Face App - an AI editing app.
BOOM found that none of the Secret Service agents in the frame were smiling in the original photo. The viral manipulated photo has been created by synthetically adding fake smiles to the photo using the tool Face App.
Thomas Mathew Crooks (20) fired multiple shots targeting Donald Trump during his outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024, in an assassination attempt that sent shockwaves across the world. The incident killed one attendee and critically injured two others. The shooter was later neutralised by the Secret Service.
The incident has triggered a wave of misinformation on social media.
Two versions of the photo are being shared on social media with false claims. The first version shows three Secret Service agents, surrounding Trump, smiling. A cropped version of the same photo showing only the female Secret Service agent smiling is also being shared. Right-wing social media users have launched sexist attacks against the female Secret Service agent, sharing footage of her appearing to struggle to holster her weapon after the shooting.
The viral photo of all three agents smiling was posted on X by the handle @MomMom2DJ with the caption, "Blow this up. The secret service woman has her head down as if trying to stay out of camera view & she is SMILING just as much as the agent on the other side of Trump is. Don't you find this odd? Do SS agents usually leave the president exposed & laugh about an attack? #PhotoOp?"
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
X handle @JeanBear1 posted the photo of the female Secret Service agent smiling with the caption, "B***** the woman smiling & when you are injured the secret service men don't hold on so you can raise your hand & yelled out, 100% stage, you are injured you call the ambulance police swat comes right away, they make sure you okay period."
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found the original photo in which none of the agents can be seen smiling. We then used the face editing app "Face App" to synthetically add smiles to the faces in the original image. The result was an exact match to the viral image, which shows it has been manipulated using Face App.
We also found the original photo shot by Associated Press's chief photographer Evan Vucci, where none of the Secret Service agents in the frame appear to be smiling.
The photo, which quickly became the defining image of the assassination attempt, can be seen in high detail here.
We then used the editing app called "Face App" which rendered a result which was an exact match to the viral photos. The following screen recording shows how we used the app to add the smiles.
A comparison between the morphed photo and the original photo can be seen below:
