Wardrobe Malfunction: Doctored Photo Shows Sea of Blue Suits at Pope’s Funeral, Reflecting Trump’s Controversial Fashion Choice
By Hilary Hersh
What happened: Pro-Trump social media users are sharing an image showing multiple men wearing blue suits at Pope Francis’ April 26 funeral, in response to criticism that Trump showed disrespect by wearing a blue suit instead of the expected black suit.
Context: Trump wore a sapphire-like blue colored suit to the pope’s April 26 funeral, drawing criticism from some media outlets and social media accounts. Vanessa Friedman, chief fashion critic for The New York Times, wrote that “amid all the black and Cardinal red, it popped out like a sign.”
A closer look: An altered photo showing at least 15 people wearing blue soon spread among conservative social media users.
X account @libsoftiktok, which frequently advances far-right content, posted the image and stated: “NEW HOAX JUST DROPPED. ‘Trump broke the rules and stood out by wearing a blue suit to Pope Francis’ funeral!’ Reality.” The post garnered 2.7 million views and 55,000 likes in two days.
Conservative X account @hodgetwins reposted the Libs of TikTok post and added, “All they do is lie,” apparently referring to the media. The post received 104,800 views and 3,300 likes in one day.
Actually: The image was digitally manipulated to show multiple mourners dressed in bright blue suits.
The original image, taken by The Associated Press’ Markus Schreiber, clearly shows that the vast majority of attendees wore black suits.
An analysis by fact-checking organization Lead Stories (NewsGuard Trust Score: 100/100) found that the suits of multiple high-profile attendees had been altered to appear blue, including the suit worn by former President Joe Biden.