Thanks to Donald Trump’s horrendous response to Puerto Rico and his continued laziness on other major disasters that have ravaged the country (the most recent being Hurricane Florence), the president has earned his reputation of being absolutely tone deaf and useless when it comes to providing aid and relief in dire situations. That’s why a picture of Trump lending a hand and “rescuing” flood victims immediately went viral and is now causing quite the stir.
Trump voters probably rejoiced when they saw a picture of their president floating in a raft, extending a hand out to a flood victim – until they realize that he’s just trying to give the victim a red Make America Great Again hat and the photo is completely fake. Truth be told, there are no photos in existence that capture Trump doing anything heroic (don’t forget, this is a man who made up the excuse of “bone spurs” to escape the draft). Needless to say, the photo went viral for numerous reasons.
New York Times reporter Kevin Roose noted on Twitter that this was an edited photo – the original was taken in Central Texas in 2015, and real rescuers were originally on that raft. Here’s the new photo, alongside its original:
A photoshopped picture depicting Trump rescuing people during Hurricane Florence has been shared 275,000 times on Facebook. The original is from Texas flooding in 2015. pic.twitter.com/woWuPuqSSy
— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) September 24, 2018
Of course, it’s easy to see from a closer look that the photo is fake, and when you look at how Trump really responds to hurricane victims – like throwing paper towels at Hurricane Maria survivors or making insensitive jokes to Hurricane Florence victims – you know Trump wouldn’t lift a finger for his constituents. Roose also pointed out that this photo never should have even gotten through Facebook’s security system, which was put in place to prevent fake photos and other unethical photos from being uploaded:
Facebook already uses image hashing/fingerprinting to prevent repeat uploads of e.g. revenge porn. Seems like it would be easy to prevent obviously fake photos from going viral.
— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) September 24, 2018
And of course, Americans were bitter and disgusted that this photo might actually fool Republicans and make them feel like we have a real president.
Right. Donald Trump rescued people from Hurricane Florence the way he cleared wreckage from the World Trade Center in the days after 9/11. And people will believe it. Believe me!
— Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) September 24, 2018
Anyone who credulously shared this photo needs to be put into protective confinement.
— Dennis Perkins (@DennisPerkins5) September 24, 2018
Trump hasn’t done a damn thing for Americans who have been affected by recent tragedies – and he deserves all the criticism this photo invites.
Featured image via screen capture
