Fake photo of President Trump assisting flood survivors is causing a stir on the internet

A viral fake photo of the US President Donald Trump was uploaded on September 16, 2017. The image, showing him assisting a stranded man in a flood, has since resurfaced.

This time, the image is being used to make it seem as if the president personally assisted people affected by Hurricane Florence. However, a number of things about the fake image stand out.

In the viral fake image, President Donald Trump could be seen in a raft trying to rescue a man stranded in heavy floodwaters. Kevin Roose, a “New York Times” reporter shared that the original image was taken in Central Texas in 2015.

This was long before Trump became the president. The original photo showed three rescuers from the Austin Fire Department reaching out to save a man who was holding onto a chain-link fence.

For more on this story go to our Twitter account @amomama_usa. In the original image, one of the rescuers reaches out his hand to the stranded man.

There are a lot of telltale signs that the fake image has been Photoshopped. Trump is seen in heavy floods without a life vest.

Secondly, presidents are not known to personally take part in rescue operations after disasters. The other dead giveaway is that Trump is seen wearing a full suit in the deadly situation.

The last strange thing about the image is that the president appears to be giving the stranded man a “Make America Great Again” hat. Perhaps he’s using it for the man to reach out, but either way, neither scenario is realistic.

Roose shared that the image has been shared more than 250,000 times on Facebook. The fake picture appears with the caption: “You won’t see this on the news … make it go viral.”

It isn’t, however, clear how many of the shares were genuine and how many were posted ironically. It’s thought that the image was created to make the president and his administration to come off in a good light.

One real image is the one of Trump throwing rolls of paper towels into a crowd of people impacted by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year. The president addressed the backlash from the incident saying:

“They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels. And I came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people. And they were screaming and they were loving everything. I was having fun, they were having fun. They said, ‘Throw ’em to me! Throw ’em to me Mr President!’”