Trump posts AI-edited photo of White House column

US President Donald Trump has posted several photos on his social network Truth Social to show off renovation work at the White House. One of the images appears to have been altered using artificial intelligence, according to tech outlet The Verge, which checked it with a Google tool that looks for traces of AI.

The picture compares an old White House column with a "restored" one. Google's AI detector flagged it as "made or edited with OpenAI." The Verge confirmed that the image is marked as AI-generated when uploaded to Google's SynthID Detector, which scans images, video and audio for an invisible watermark indicating AI use.

Discrepancies in the image

Reddit users noticed that the "restored" column has an uneven number of steps on its two sides. The step count also does not match the "before" photo. The two images are nearly identical in angle and detail: the reflection in the windows is almost the same, and the protective cardboard at the base of the column appears to sit in the same spot. The "newly painted" column also looks unnaturally smooth.

What is known about the other images

Real photos show workers painting the front of the White House in June, so the column may indeed have received a fresh coat of paint. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The SynthID watermark was not detected in the other pictures Trump posted, which show the White House facade and the heliport.

Trump often uses AI tools, regularly posting AI-generated caricatures of himself. The White House, for its part, has posted racist AI memes and at least one photo deceptively edited to make a protester look distraught.