Altered Christmas Photograph of Michelle Obama Promotes False Conspiracy Principle

On July 2, 2024, X person @TRobinsonNewEra posted (archived) a dated, doctored image displaying former U.S. President Barack Obama together with his arm round his future spouse, Michelle, of their youthful days, standing subsequent to a Christmas tree.

By sharing the altered picture, this person and different customers promoted the false, long-running online conspiracy theory claiming the previous first girl was born male and given the title “Michael.” In actuality, Michelle Obama was born feminine with the title Michelle LaVaughn Robinson.

Reverse-image searches for the pretend image displayed recent results on X, in addition to quite a few previous reposts on Imgflip, TikTok, Truth Social and different web sites.

Wanda Freeman Barzizza, the spouse of a proper mayoral candidate for town of Germantown, Tennessee, additionally at the very least as soon as posted (archived) the pretend picture. We previously reported several times about the truth that Barzizza spent years sharing deceptive info. Her account additionally obtained a number of month-long suspensions previously, based mostly on each the lengthy gaps in time between posts and admissions made on her personal public feed.

A Reddit post claims an unidentified photographer captured the unique, undoctored image of the Obamas on Christmas Day in 1991. No ring seems on the long run Michelle Obama’s hand within the picture.

It is unclear the place the doctored model of the Christmas image originated. If we discover this out, we’ll replace this story sooner or later.

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