Picture of Hitler raising fist altered to resemble photo of Trump | Fact check
The claim: Image shows Trump raised fist just like old image of Hitler
A July 20 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows side-by-side pictures of former President Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler raising their fists with people on either side of them.
"Look at it in b&w, it's exactly the same," reads text within the post.
The post was shared more than 300 times in less than three weeks. Similar versions of the claim were shared on X, formerly Twitter.
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Our rating: Altered
The image of Hitler was digitally manipulated to resemble the one of Trump. Aspects of a photo taken of Hitler were digitally combined with artificial elements, including the people standing on either side of him, according to an expert analysis.
Hitler image altered to resemble Trump pose
The image of Trump in the post is a well-known picture taken moments after he was nicked by the bullet of a would-be assassin on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The Hitler image is an altered version of a picture showing Hitler during a 1930s speech. The original Getty Images picture shows Hitler's body facing the opposite way, and there is no flag or people next to him.
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James O'Brien, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, analyzed the Threads image using "error-level analysis," which compares the JPEG artifacts in different parts of the image to find parts that have been compressed or saved with a different quality. He found that the two people and the flag in the background had inconsistent JPEG effects, meaning they were sourced from different places.
He also noted the flag's unnatural shade pattern, which meant the flag was probably a computer-generated rendering instead of a photo. And he said the color gradients of the people and the flag didn't match the rest of the photo.
"The original image of Hitler was black and white, which means that the film grain and noise is all black, white and grays," O'Brien said. "But the flag and two people with Hitler were made to look like old images using a tool like Photoshop – or something similar – to add the film grain and noise."
He said the colors in these aspects can be seen upon close inspection, and the image's creator most likely turned the saturation on the image to the max.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
Getty Images, 1930, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), German statesman
James O'Brien, Aug. 6, Email exchange with USA TODAY
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hitler picture altered to resemble Trump photo | Fact check