The claim: Photo appears to show police arresting Donald Trump On May 30, an Instagram post (direct link, archive link) seemingly depicts former President Donald Trump being arrested by a group of police officers. The caption reads, "Guilty!" Within a day, the post received over 9, 000 likes. Fact-Check Team: How we verify claims | Newsletter | Facebook page Our rating: Altered According to experts and an online detection tool, the image was generated using artificial intelligence. However, after Trump's conviction on May 30, he was not taken into police custody. He remains free until his sentencing on July 11. Trump image identified as AI-generated As the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump became the first former U. S. president convicted of a felony. He was found guilty on all 34 counts tied to falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election. His sentence, to be announced in July, could potentially result in up to four years in prison. Nevertheless, the image in the Instagram post does not show Trump being arrested by the police. Two experts and an online AI detector assert that the image is a fabrication produced by artificial intelligence. Fact check: Images claiming Trump's arrest are computer-generated "It is very obviously the product of AI, " stated Walter Scheirer, an engineering professor at Notre Dame specializing in visual recognition. V. S. Subrahmanian, a computer science professor at Northwestern University and an AI expert, similarly believes that the image is likely a fabrication. The online AI detection tool, Hive Moderation, indicated a 99. 9% probability of the image being AI-generated. The image creates a misleading perception of the events that occurred in and around the Manhattan courtroom. Instead of being apprehended by the police, Trump left voluntarily. He briefly spoke to the media before departing in an SUV.

He also held a news conference the following day and is scheduled to debate President Joe Biden on June 27 in Atlanta. All of these actions would not have been possible if he had been taken into custody by authorities. Furthermore, the image inaccurately depicts the color of Trump's tie. In reality, he wore a solid blue tie to court that day, not the blue and white striped one shown in the fabricated image. Additional discrepancies within the image further confirm its artificial nature. The officer on Trump's right features two badges, while the officer behind him possesses a deformed badge on his hat. Additionally, the hands placed in Trump's armpits do not clearly belong to any officers in the photograph. "The overall appearance of the image isn't photorealistic, " commented Scheirer. "It looks more like a cartoon, which is commonly observed in the output of generative AI models. " Fabricated images of Trump have often caused confusion on social media. USA TODAY has previously debunked claims involving images purportedly showing Trump in various scenarios, such as attending a cookout with Black supporters, leading a procession through a street adorned with flags, and being on a plane with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Each of these images was also created using AI. Although USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post, no immediate response was received. PolitiFact has also debunked this claim. Our fact-check sources: Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app, or e-newspaper here. USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, an organization that upholds nonpartisanship, fairness, and transparency. Our fact-check work is partially supported by a grant from Meta.