Is image of Trump yelling at Hegseth in Oval Office real? | Snopes.com

In early March 2026, online users claimed an image showed U.S. President Donald Trump pointing and yelling at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Oval Office. The alleged photo showed the pair through double doors and included a small glimpse of the historic Resolute Desk.

Users shared the alleged picture in the hours and days after the U.S. and Israel began airstrikes targeting Iran on Feb. 28, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, among others. One Snopes reader emailed, "Is the photo of Trump yelling at Hegseth in the Oval office real?"

In short, the image was fake and was created with an artificial-intelligence tool. YouTuber Keith Edwards first featured the inauthentic picture in a Dec. 4, 2025, video thumbnail image.

(Keith Edwards/YouTube)

Threads user @st.i.xd revealed (archived) the uncropped, AI-generated picture originated from Edwards' YouTube channel. Edwards' other videos also featured AI-generated thumbnail images of Trump and other prominent U.S. politicians.

Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo and Google found no news media outlets reporting about what would be a widely covered photo, if real. In another sign of inauthenticity, the real Oval Office has a single exterior door, not double doors as depicted in the fake picture.

Snopes contacted Edwards to ask which AI tool he used to create the fake thumbnail image, as well as to inquire about whether the video featured a disclaimer for the AI-generated photo. We will update this article if we receive further information.

Fake image spread like wildfire

Reverse image searches located many posts with users sharing the inauthentic photo. For example, on March 1, 2026, a Threads user posted (archived) the image with the caption, "The Iran war seems to be going great I see." The post had been tagged with a community note that contained information about the image's dated origins but did not reveal the fake photo's source on YouTube.

Nearly two hours later, the user posted, "DISCLAIMER: there are reports that this photo is old or possibly edited. Others are saying it is AI. I welcome all analysis.However, I'm leaving it up for now because it's hilarious."

(@shelbyyalexandra/Threads)

Users shared the image on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Reddit (archived), Tumblr (archived) and X (archived), for example. One X post (archived), also featuring a community note, received more than 4 million views:

(@DailyIranNews/X)

The fake photo appeared in posts going as far back as Dec. 5, 2025, on Facebook, Reddit and Threads (archived).

For further reading, we previously reported about what we know regarding claims of Hegseth having Nazi tattoos.