No evidence to support Trump’s claim that image from Harris’ rally is fake

Former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump has long claimed his rallies are larger than his political opponents’ events. At an Aug. 8 press conference, he said, "Nobody's spoken to crowds bigger than me.”

Trump’s latest claim is that Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, manipulated a rally image to make it seem like there was a larger audience. 

“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane. She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people,” a portion of Trump’s Aug. 10 Truth Social post said.

Accompanying the Truth Social post was a viral X post from conservative commentator Chuck Callesto. That post with more than 14 million views says, “BREAKING REPORT: Harris campaign BUSTED using FAKE crowd photo at campaign rally stop.”

Others implied that because there is no reflection of the crowd on the side of the plane, that is evidence the photo is fake. Another person said that there wasn’t a tail number on the plane, which further fueled the theory about the photo.

Several VERIFY readers asked us if the photo is fake, as the viral posts claim.

THE QUESTION

Is the image from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz rally fake?

THE SOURCES

• Aug. 7 X post by Bhavik Lathia, the Harris-Walz campaign mobilization director for battleground states
• Aug. 11 X post from the Kamala Harris campaign
• Detroit Free Press live stream from the Aug. 7 rally
• Associated Press photos from the rally
• Photos from ABC News reporter Isabella Murray
• Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow
• VERIFY analysis of the image
• RevEye, a reverse image search tool

THE ANSWER

No, there is no evidence to support Trump’s claim this image from Harris’ rally is fake. There are several other real images from the event that also show the same large crowd. 

WHAT WE FOUND

The image being shared by Donald Trump and others online appears to be real. The only way to confirm with certainty that a photo is real is to review the original metadata, which in this case we don’t have access to, but there is enough supporting media and evidence to suggest that this image is real.

VERIFY compared the viral image to other photos and broadcasts from the rally and found no signs the photo was manipulated. Several reputable news organizations have published photos and videos that illustrate the same large crowd at the rally in Romulus, Michigan. 

To investigate whether the photo that Trump shared is real, VERIFY conducted a reverse image using photo forensics tool RevEye. We were able to trace the photo Trump and others have been sharing to one posted online by Bhavik Lathia, the Harris-Walz campaign mobilization director for battleground states.

“Our MI digital director just texted me this photo and I’m *shook* I’ve been knocking doors and participating in Michigan elections since 2004… I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced anything like this,” Lathia’s post says. 

The Harris campaign on Aug. 11 posted on X that the photo is an “an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan.”

VERIFY also checked credible news outlets to see whether other images and videos showed the same large crowd. 

VERIFY then checked credible news outlets to see whether other images and videos showed the same large crowd. 

The Associated Press covered the event and published photos that look like the one being shared on Trump’s social media channel. The AP and local coverage from Michigan Live said there were about 15,000 people in the hangar where the rally was being held near Detroit Metro Airport. 

The same “Harris Walz” campaign signs can be seen in the images and Air Force Two, the plane reserved for the vice president, can be seen in roughly the same location. Air Force Two doesn’t have a tail number in the footage published by news outlets because it doesn’t have one, which is a security measure.

The Detroit Free Press livestreamed the rally on their YouTube channel. Those visuals are also similar.

ABC News Reporter Isabella Murray, who is covering the 2024 election, also posted photos from the rally. Those photos also show the crowd size and look similar to ones being shared in the viral social media posts. 

We also looked at other attendee photos and videos from the event to further corroborate if the photo is authentic.

Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow said she was there. On Aug. 11, she disputed Trump’s claim the image is fake on X by sharing photos and a video from where she was standing inside the airport hangar. 

McMorrow wrote, “Here’s my view from the inside corner of the hangar where you can just see the throngs of people outside, the plane after the rally (when I was able to walk around to see it), and some scenes from very people and me.”

VERIFY also independently analyzed the photo. Images created using artificial intelligence software often contain “artifacts,” which are clues that the image isn’t real. For example, faces and body features are typically distorted or text is scrambled. 

This photo contains no indicators that it was created with AI.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.