Doctored photo of Trump assassination attempt fuels baseless 'staged' claims

"#Staged AF," says a July 14, 2024 post sharing the image on X.

Another post from the same user adds: "#TrumpIsNotFitToBePresident It's ketchup. It's always a con and a grift."

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Screenshot from X taken July 15, 2024

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Screenshot from X taken July 15, 2024

The posts accompanied a flood of disinformation that followed the assassination attempt on Trump, who narrowly escaped a flurry of gunshots that killed a bystander and critically wounded two other spectators while speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

Similar posts baselessly accused the Republican businessman, who pumped his fist and yelled for his supporters to "fight" as Secret Service agents whisked him away from the podium, of staging the attack with fake blood capsules.

But the image purporting to show a Heinz ketchup packet that exploded within Trump's shirt collar is manipulated.

A reverse image search surfaced the original photo from the Associated Press's Gene J Puskar, which along with similar shots shows no such wrapper poking out of Trump's shirt (archived here, here and here).

AFP also captured photos of Trump's bloodied ear.

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Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024 (AFP / Rebecca DROKE)

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Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024 (AFP / Rebecca DROKE)

Graphic footage of the incident also shows no ketchup package.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the bullet "pierced the upper part of my right ear" (archived here).

"I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin," he wrote.

Authorities identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks opened fire from a nearby rooftop before a Secret Service sniper team shot and killed him.

The altered Trump ketchup image appears to have come from a British X user who posted it with a caption saying, "the plot thickens" and a smiling emoji. The user called people who flagged it to X's crowdsourced fact-checking program "idiots."

Reached via direct message, they told AFP: "It's 100 percent a joke."

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the assassination attempt on Trump in French here.