Politics

FACT CHECK: No, Fox News Didn’t Stage A Photo Of Trump Visiting Troops In Afghanistan

President_Donald_Trump | circa February 2018 | Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead

An image shared on Facebook said Fox News staged a picture of President Donald Trump visiting soldiers in Afghanistan.

Verdict: False

There’s no record of Fox News airing the photograph. It has been doctored to make it look like the event was staged.

Fact Check:

Trump made an unannounced visit to Bagram Air Base, the main American base north of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thanksgiving Day. Shortly thereafter, a number of social media users began circulating claims about Fox News staging a photo of the president’s surprise visit.

This Facebook post features an alleged screen grab of a Fox News broadcast showing American soldiers cheering and clapping during this visit. A sign appearing to bear the words “universal,” “national” and “studios” can be seen in the background.

“Fox propaganda posts a fake picture to show soldiers excited to see Trump in Afghanistan … forgets to take out the Universal Studios sign in the background,” the Facebook post said.

However, the image has been digitally altered. Taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Olivier Douliery, the original picture has no sign visible in the background, just a plain beige wall. The words appear to have been photoshopped into the image.

“US Soldiers react with cheers and applause as US President Donald Trump arrives in Bagram Air Field during a surprise Thanksgiving day visit, on November 28, 2019 in Afghanistan,” reads the caption.

“Of course it’s a fake,” Douliery told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.

Fox News told FactCheck.org that it never aired the image. The DCNF also didn’t find any record of Fox News airing it.

Other media outlets, including Axios and the Daily Mail, included the image in their reporting of Trump’s surprise visit. Those instances didn’t have the sign that appears in the Facebook post.