Photo shows South Korean politician displaying stock chart, not attacking Trump

"If this guy who criticised the US president as a nutjob becomes our president, the US will withdraw its troops from South Korea, the country will be hit with tariffs and fall to pieces," reads a Korean-language Facebook post shared April 11, 2025.

The post contains an image that appears to show Lee holding up a smartphone with a photo of Trump and text that says: "Trump is a nutjob."

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Screenshot of the altered image captured April 11, 2025

South Korea will hold a snap presidential election on June 3 to choose the successor of Yoon, who was removed from power by a unanimous Constitutional Court decision on April 4 over his failed martial law bid last year.

Lee, the country's former opposition leader who lost the presidency to Yoon by a razor-thin margin in 2022, is the current frontrunner by a wide margin, according to pre-election polling (archived link).

Other claims that Lee criticised Trump spread in multiple Facebook groups supportive of ex-president Yoon, whose backers have drawn parallels between him and Trump. Comments indicate some people believe the image is genuine.

"Lee is the true nutjob and the son of Satan," one user wrote. 

Another said: "If Trump finds out about this and Lee wins (the presidency), we are in for hell."

But the image is doctored.

Stock chart picture

A combination of keyword and reverse image searches on Google found the original image published November 28, 2024 by the news agency News1. It shows Lee holding up a stock chart of a construction company embroiled in an insider trading scandal involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee (archived link).

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Screenshot comparison between the altered image (L) and the original photo published by News1 in November 2024

Lee was holding up the chart at the Korea Exchange to show reporters how Sambu Construction's stock price quintupled in a short period, claiming this was evidence of manipulation (archived link).

Other photos taken by News1 and Yonhap news agency at the same event also show Lee holding up a stock chart (archived links here and here). Local news organisation OhMyNews published footage of Lee displaying the stock chart on his phone (archived link).

AFP could not find any credible reports of Lee publicly criticising Trump.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in December 2024, Lee said many people referred to him as "Korea's Trump" (archived link).

The former opposition leader also sent a letter to the US embassy in Seoul congratulating Trump following the latter's re-election in November, expressing a desire for "intimate cooperation" between the allies, according to Yonhap (archived link).

AFP previously debunked a similar altered image falsely claimed to show Lee holding an anti-Trump sign in parliament.