Claim:
A photo purportedly shows US First Lady Melania Trump kissing late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on the lips.
Rating:
Rating: Fake
In April 2026, social media users claimed that an image showed an authentic photo of US First Lady Melania Trump kissing late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on the lips. Some users’ comments, including one under a popular thread post (archived), indicated that they believed the image actually showed Trump and Epstein kissing.
In short, the image was fake and generated with artificial intelligence. Google’s diamond-shaped watermark for AI-generated images appears in the lower-right corner. A Google Gemini prompt asking the AI tool to scan for one of Google’s SynthID watermarks — an invisible marker simply added to Google AI-generated images — returned the message, “Analysis of this image shows that all or part of the content was edited or generated with Google AI.”
Users shared the inauthentic photo after Melania Trump’s April 9, 2026, statement that she had distanced herself from Epstein and his associate, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. Melania Trump said of the fake photos, “Many fake photos and statements about Epstein and me have been circulating on social media for years. Be careful what you believe. These photos and stories are completely false.”
Snopes emailed the first lady’s representative to ask if she would like to comment on this specific fake image, but had not heard back by the time of publication.
Investigating AI-generated images
A reverse image search for the fake photo of Melania Trump kissing Epstein on the lips only returned reposts on social media — including Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived) — as opposed to credible sources.
(@rondicki/threads)
We are yet to confirm the original post of the fake image or the user who created it. No news media outlets published the photo, which would have been widely reported if it had been authentic.
While the fake image did not have major signs of AI, such as extra fingers or illegible letters, some small details point to its inauthenticity. These include the awkward alignment of Melania Trump and Epstein’s lips and the man in the red tie on the right, who has a distinctive facial expression. Similar to other AI-generated images.
For more reading, we previously reported on a collage of fake images featuring Melania Trump and Epstein.
Sources:
“Jeffrey Epstein Investigation Timeline and the Government’s Fight to Release Files”. PBS NewsAssociated Press, 6 Feb. 2026, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/a-timeline-of-the-jeffrey-epstein-investigation-and-the-fight-to-make-the-governments-files-public.
“Statement by First Lady Melania Trump.” The White House9 April 2026, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2026/04/first-lady-melania-trump-statement/.
Martinez, A. “Ghislaine Maxwell asks US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction”. NPR29 July 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/07/29/nx-s1-5482993/ghislaine-maxwell-asks-us-supreme-court-to-overturn-her-conviction.
“SynthID.” Google DeepMindhttps://deepmind.google/models/synthid/.
Thompson, Stuart A. “These Tools Say They Can Detect AI Fakes. Do They Really Work?” The New York Times25 Feb. 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/technology/ai-detection-generated-photos-video.html.
“What the Justice Department Knows About the Jeffrey Epstein Files.” The Associated Press20 Nov. 2025, https://apnews.com/video/what-to-know-about-the-justice-departments-jeffrey-epstein-files-365db927447844868521ba18862cbcff.
