Beware These Trump-Epstein Fake Images
PLUS: OAN Cites Russian Falsehoods as Fact; You Can Still Dance to Hip Hop on Carnival Cruises; The Propaganda Assault on Moldova
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In today’s edition, we break down how after the Trump administration concluded that there is no Jeffrey Epstein “client list,” social media users on both the left and the right pushed AI images that appear to show Donald Trump and Epstein with underaged girls. We also expose how the OAN network was apparently duped by a Russian propaganda outfit; we debunk the claim that Carnival Cruise Line banned rap and hip hop music in a racist act aimed at Black passengers; and we preview a NewsGuard report revealing how the Kremlin is targeting the small Eastern European nation of Moldova with false claims aimed at undermining its pro-European government ahead of September elections.
Plus: Introducing a new video series to help you with tools and skills to confirm deepfakes and other falsehoods in your social media feed. Please share this with family and friends who may need these tips to avoid falling for false claims.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Sofia Rubinson and Eric Effron.
1. Justice Department Closes the Book on Epstein Conspiracy — and Sparks an AI Frenzy
By Jack Olson and Sofia Rubinson
What happened: After the Justice Department and FBI on July 7 released a memo concluding that the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide and that there is no “client list” of elite co-conspirators, AI-generated photos purporting to show President Donald Trump in compromising positions with Epstein spread rapidly on social media.
Context: The long-awaited Justice Department-FBI memo contradicted earlier statements by prominent Trump administration officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, who appeared to confirm the existence of a “client list” during a Fox News interview, and FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, who previously implied that Epstein did not kill himself.
The memo was greeted with cries of a “cover-up” by social media users across the political spectrum, including by MAGA supporters and QAnon conspiracy theorists who had long predicted that the Trump administration would expose multiple Democratic politicians as pedophiles.
A closer look: Conspiracy-minded social media users on both sides of the political spectrum now allege that the Trump administration is hiding the supposed “client list” because Trump himself is on it, citing images that appear to show Trump and Epstein posing together with underaged girls.
Crowded parties: Two viral AI images (shown below) depict Trump and Epstein in contact with what appear to be young girls. The images first gained traction on social media in the wake of Trump’s public feud with Elon Musk in June 2025, during which Musk claimed with no supporting evidence that Trump was named in the FBI’s sex trafficking investigation of Epstein. These claims got a boost after the release of the Justice Department memo.
Island dance: Another AI image shows a middle-aged Trump dancing with a purported 13-year-old girl, with overlaid text claiming the photo was taken on Epstein’s private island. The photo has spread online for at least two years, emerging again in the wake of the Trump-Musk feud and now, with the release of the Justice Department memo.
Enter Ghislaine Maxwell: Two AI images that circulated on Facebook and Threads purport to show two young girls with Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and Epstein accomplice. The images are instead screenshots from an AI-generated video originally posted to TikTok by an apparent AI content creator, @CursedAICrafter.
Attacked on both sides: While these fake images originally spread among anti-Trump social media users, the Trump administration’s dismissal of a popular MAGA conspiracy theory has now generated similar claims among his own base.
Actually: All of the above photos were fabricated with AI, according to multiple detection tools.
Although Trump has been photographed smiling with Epstein at multiple social events, there are no known authentic photos of Trump and Epstein with underage girls.
And while Trump travelled on Epstein’s private jet multiple times in the 1990s, there is no evidence that he ever visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Justice Department-FBI memo on the Epstein case was released on July 6, 2025. In fact, it was released on July 7. NewsGuard apologizes for the error.
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2. Right-Wing OAN Apparently Duped by Russian Propaganda Campaign
By Sam Howard
What happened: The long-standing conspiracy theory that the French president’s wife Brigette Macron is transgender has been given a boost in the U.S by One America News (NewsGuard Trust Score: 22.5/100), which cited a deepfake report created by a Russian propaganda operation.
A closer look: During a July 11 segment of the OAN weeknight show “Fine Point,” host Chanel Rion said, “The surgeon who promised to give an interview about the sex change of Brigitte Macron was found dead in Paris. And get this … he I guess fell out of a window."
Rion was reading from a July 3 headline on pro-Kremlin news site EADaily.com (Trust Score: 12.5/100).
A clip of the segment posted on OAN’s official X account garnered 250,300 views and 2,200 likes in three days before it was deleted on July 14.
Russian origin: The baseless claim appears to have originated in a July 1 video reporting that a surgeon was found dead in Paris on June 29, 2025, after falling from a window. The video included footage of an earlier interview with the supposed surgeon, said to be 58-year-old François Faivre, in which Faivre said he worked at the American Hospital in Paris with a plastic surgeon who “told me about the physical changes that Ms. Brigitte Macron underwent during the transgender surgery in the hospital.”
Actually: There is no evidence that a surgeon named François Faivre died suspiciously in Paris in June 2025, let alone that he ever existed. It is not known who the man in the video is.
American Hospital in Paris communications manager Alexis Ray told NewsGuard in a July 2025 phone interview that no one named François Faivre has ever worked at the hospital.
NewsGuard ran the interview video through AI detection tool Hive, which found with 91 percent likelihood that the footage is a deepfake.
The July 1 video appears to have been first posted to EnqueteDuJour.fr, a site masquerading as a news outlet with a domain registered only six days earlier, according to WhoIs domain registration records.
The false narrative resembles campaigns previously manufactured and disseminated by a Russian influence operation known as Storm-1516. Campaigns from Storm-1516 typically involve a staged “first-person testimony” from a fictitious persona who claims to have first-hand knowledge of covert or illegal actions by politicians.
The Storm-1516 network includes John Mark Dougan, a fugitive former Florida deputy sheriff-turned-Russian propagandist based in Moscow. Dougan is not a stranger to OAN. He was previously credited as an “OAN foreign correspondent” when OANN.com published his pro-Kremlin coverage of Russia’s war with Ukraine in August 2022. Dougan had not appeared again on OAN, a spokesperson for the channel told The Washington Post in an October 2024 report.
Asked about Rion’s comments, Charles Herring, president of OAN parent company Herring Networks, told NewsGuard in a July 14, 2025, email that the “Fine Point” segment, called Headline Roulette, “is NOT meant to be taken seriously – it’s a comedic sketch mocking outrageous headlines. The name of the segment highlights this point. The guest, Tim Young, is introduced as a comedian. The headlines are being mocked. Note the laughing of the host.”
However, the other two headlines covered in the segment described real news stories, including an NBC News report on X AI chatbot Grok praising Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. And while it is true Rion introduced guest Tim Young as a comedian, she also described him as a “media fellow at the Heritage Foundation,” the conservative think tank.
In May 2025, Kari Lake, senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, announced that OAN would “provide newsfeed services” to government-funded news outlets that include Voice of America.
The agency did not respond to two emails from NewsGuard on July 14 and July 15, 2025, seeking comment on the Macron segment and asking whether the clip appeared on Voice of America.
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3. Carnival Cruise Line Slammed as Racist Over Purported Ban on Rap Music
What happened: Social media users on TikTok and X are falsely claiming that Carnival Cruise Line has banned the playing of hip-hop and rap music in its ships’ nightclubs and from Bluetooth speakers, allegedly aiming to curb rowdy behavior.
Some social media accounts criticized the purported ban as racially discriminatory, arguing that the policies unfairly targeted Black passengers. Others praised the supposed ban.
A closer look: The claim got millions of views on social media, with some accounts calling for a boycott of Carnival for the allegedly racist policy.
TikTok user @kiarajaxn posted a video on June 30 with on-screen text stating, “I canceled my Carnival cruise because of the new rules.” In the video, she stated: “We got the message loud and clear: We are not your demographic anymore. … Carnival has decided they want to rebrand, they don’t want to be known as the turn-up [partying] cruise. … They said no more hip-hop music.” The video received 3.3 million views and 187,200 likes.
TikTok user @goatedasstee posted a video in which she stated: “Carnival Cruise Line does not like Black people and they don’t want Black people taking their cruises. It started off with the speakers, telling people that they can’t bring speakers. … Now, Carnival has banned rap music on their cruises.” The video’s caption stated, “I’ll take my Black Dollars somewhere else cuz Banning rap music is insane.” The post garnered 117,300 views and 1,890 likes.
Meanwhile, some accounts celebrated the supposed music ban.
X account @White_Ghost187, which often shares racist content such as posts claiming that Black people destroy neighborhoods when they move in, reposted @kiarajaxn’s TikTok video and added the caption: “Blacks are mad carnival cruise banned rap music because black behavior isn’t welcome anymore. … No Laquita [sic], blacks turned it into Liberia on a boat.” The post garnered 415,700 views and 5,900 likes.
Actually: Carnival Cruise Line, a Florida-based company that operates a fleet of 29 cruise ships, has not banned hip-hop and rap music.
Addressing the claim, Carnival public relations senior manager Matt Lupoli told Black Enterprise (Trust Score: 92.5/100) in a July 10, 2025, article that the cruise line has “implemented themed nights in their nightclub experiences that cover a variety of music genres, hip hop included.”
Indeed, NewsGuard identified several TikTok videos posted after the supposed ban was implemented — including on July 6, July 12, and July 14, 2025 — showing nightclubs on Carnival cruises playing rap and hip-hop music.
It’s true that Carnival has banned Bluetooth speakers, but that policy went into effect in 2024 and applies to all types of music, according to archived versions of the company’s Safety Information page. Carnival said that the policy was meant to ensure that public safety announcements can be heard by guests and crew.
4. Special Report: Russia’s Matryoshka Propaganda Machine Picks New Target, Pushing 39 False Claims Against Moldova Over Past Three Months
By Eva Maitland, Madeline Roache, and Alice Lee
In a sweeping propaganda campaign, Russia has ramped up efforts to undermine Moldova’s pro-European government ahead of its September 2025 parliamentary elections, flooding social media with 39 fabricated stories in just three months, a NewsGuard report found. Led by the Kremlin-linked Matryoshka network, the operation has pushed false claims — including corruption, drug abuse, and election fraud — against Moldova President Maia Sandu, using fake videos and articles disguised as reports from trusted outlets such as the BBC and Bellingcat.
These narratives, amplified by pro-Kremlin websites and coordinated social media accounts, have reached millions of people online, reflecting Moscow’s determination to halt Moldova’s shift toward the European Union and reassert its influence over the former Soviet republic.
To read the full NewsGuard special report, click here.
5. Tips and Tricks: How to Spot an AI-Generated Video
NewsGuard this week launches a video series offering readers practical tips on how to spot false claims spreading online. Each short tutorial breaks down real-life examples of deepfakes and other fabrications and tells you about the tools you can use to spot falsehoods in your social media feeds. We hope you will share these videos with family and friends who need these tips to avoid falling for false claims.
Today’s tutorial describes how to spot signs of AI-generated content in a viral video that supposedly shows a gorilla in the Bronx Zoo handing a human child to its mother after the child fell into its pen. It garnered at least 12.2 million views on social media platform X. Too good to be true? It was.
Reality Check is produced by Co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
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Where is the link to the AI tutorial?