Does a viral image prove that Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite convicted of sex trafficking for Jeffrey Epstein, touched Melania Trump's breast while posing next to Donald Trump at a party in the early 2000s? No, that's not true: A real photo of them was digitally altered to change the position of Maxwell's hand. In the original shot, Maxwell's arm rests parallel to her own body.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on Feb. 26, 2026. The text across an attached image read:
Yes, this is an authentic photo from Heidi Klum's Halloween party in 2000. It shows Donald Trump, Melania Knauss, and Ghislaine Maxwell (in a white wig and leopard print outfit)...
This is what the picture from the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post from x.com)
Reverse image searches led to earlier publications of a similar image by the Sun (archived here) in 2019 and the Daily Mail (archived here) in 2025. However, in that version of the picture, Maxwell (archived here) wasn't touching Melania Knauss, who was not yet married to Trump.
In October 2025, Selma Fonseca (archived here), the photographer who took the photo, published (archived here and here) it on Instagram, too:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post from Instagram)
Later, the image was digitally edited, likely with the use of AI. The account that initially posted (archived here) it on Feb. 16, 2026, on Facebook described itself (archived here) as "AI filmmaker, content creator, and comedian specializing in NYC public interviews" whose "work spans satire, parody".
A close-up of what appeared to be Maxwell's hand in the viral image showed that it notably lacked nails and the customary human skin folds around the joints and looked unnaturally flat:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post from Facebook)
This is what Maxwell's real hand looked like in authentic images released (archived here) by the U.S. government:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of image from The Independent)
