Chelsea did not share championship photo with Trump edited out

Published on July 16, 2025 at 22:33
3 min read
By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA

After Donald Trump joined FIFA Club World Cup winners Chelsea on stage with their championship trophy, posts across platforms claimed the English football team digitally altered a photo from the presentation to remove the US president. This is false; Trump appears in some images Chelsea posted of the celebration -- including a photo pinned to the club's social media pages, which shows him tucked behind the players.

"THEY ERASED HIM! Chelsea photoshopped Trump out of their official trophy raising photo," says a July 14, 2025 post on X.

The post shows two nearly identical photos side by side. One of the pictures, from FIFA and available via Getty Images, shows Trump smiling and clapping as Chelsea captain Reese James holds the trophy over his head (archived here). The other image is the same, except that Trump has vanished from the frame.

Screenshot from X taken July 15, 2025

Similar posts claiming the Blues edited Trump out of the photo they broadcast online spread across platforms, including X, Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

The claim circulated after Trump joined FIFA President Gianni Infantino in presenting the trophy to Chelsea, which defeated France's Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the tournament final. The US president lingered front and center as the team cheered James hoisting the hardware overhead before Infantino came over and ushered him behind the rest of the players.

James, who appeared to ask Trump in the moment whether he was going to leave, later said he thought the president was going to exit the stage.

Chelsea star Cole Palmer added that he was "a bit confused" as Trump stayed on the podium.

Chelsea's players celebrate alongside US President Donald Trump during the award ceremony for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, following the final football match between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 13, 2025 (AFP / Paul ELLIS)

The claims that the club doctored a photo to edit Trump out of the shot, however, are not supported by evidence.

AFP could not identify the original source of the photo with Trump edited out, but a review of Chelsea's website, championship blog post and profiles on X, Facebook and Instagram shows the team did not share the specific picture (archived here, here, here, here and here).

The president is in fact visible in a different photo Chelsea pinned to the top of its X, Facebook and Instagram pages -- although he is standing toward the back and partially blocked from view (archived here, here and here). He can be seen smiling behind winger Pedro Neto, to James's right.

He also appears in a video from the ceremony that the club shared (archived here).

Other pictures the team posted leave the president out of the frame (archived here and here).

AFP has previously debunked other misinformation about US politics here.

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