Conservatives Falsely Claim Gov. Newsom Faked National Guard Photos
By Nicole Dirks
What happened: Critics of California Gov. Gavin Newsom are baselessly claiming that Newsom used an outdated photo from the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan or an AI-generated image in a post depicting National Guard troops housed in poor conditions in Los Angeles.
Context: On June 7, President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles amid protests against his administration’s immigration crackdown.
Two days later, on June 9, Newsom posted two photos on X that showed dozens of National Guard members sleeping on a floor with backpacks as pillows. “You sent your troops here without fuel, food, water or a place to sleep,” Newsom posted, in a comment directed at Trump.
A closer look: Conservative accounts subsequently accused Newsom of deception, saying the images actually showed U.S. troops during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Others claimed the images were generated by AI.
The claim appears to have originated in a June 9 X post by @Melissa_in_CA, whose profile describes her as an “OSINT [Open Source Intelligence] journalist.” @Melissa_in_CA posted a ChatGPT response that said, “These images became publicly available via official U.S. defense channels on August 22, 2021, with the content captured three days earlier during the Kabul evacuation.” The post received 214,300 views and 170 likes in two days.
A June 9 post by conservative commentator and Trump confidante Laura Loomer said, “Looks like @GavinNewsom used an AI photo to smear President Trump! Democrats love lying.” The post garnered 341,000 views and 9,500 likes in two days.
Actually: The photos were originally published by the San Francisco Chronicle (NewsGuard Trust Score: 100/100) on June 9, and there is no evidence that they were shot during the 2021 U.S. Afghanistan withdrawal or are AI-generated.
The Chronicle said in a June 9 article that the photos of the troops were “exclusively obtained by the Chronicle” and that they were shot in Los Angeles at “what appear to be federal building basements or loading docks.” The photographer was not identified.
Using a reverse image search, NewsGuard found no evidence that the two photos appeared online before June 9, 2025. Moreover, NewsGuard ran the photos through artificial intelligence detector Hive, which determined that there was only a 0.1 percent chance either was AI-generated.
This article was originally published in Reality Check’s newsletter. Subscribe to receive weekly updates straight to your inbox.