Melania Trump accused of editing the White House Christmas portrait

Melania Trump has said in the past that she doesn’t 'give a f**k about the Christmas stuff’ but as the First Lady she has had to indulge in quite a bit of ‘Christmas stuff ’during the past four years. 

Fortunately for her, this will be her last Christmas in the White House and she won’t have to put on a brave face and act like she actually wants to put up the decorations and trees. 

She still has to get this Christmas out of the way and she has managed to avoid criticism this year by taking a more traditional approach to the decorations. However, her final Christmas portrait with her and husband Donald has attracted a bit more interest. 

A photo that was posted by Melania on 18th December shows both her and the president wearing matching tuxedos by the grand staircase in the White House in what is a relatively inoffensive and simple photograph for their official Christmas portrait.

However, online sleuths have noticed something fishy about the photo. First reported by InStyle, people believe that the president might have been photoshopped into the picture. Those accusing Melania of editing the photo have pointed towards a picture of the couple meeting Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall at Winfield House in June 2019. In the aforementioned picture, Trump appears to be wearing an indentical tux and in the same exact stance. 

Others haven’t gone into quite those details but have criticised the image for being badly photoshopped.

Unfortunately, we’re probably going to have to say that this might be people clutching at straws. There are some minor differences between the two photos of the president such as his shirt cuffs being visible and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that it is the same tuxedo. Plus, Trump has been doing that same awkward stance for years now.

In comments given to the Daily Dot, television editor and post-production supervisor, Dylan Reeve noted that the image might appear odd to some because it has been “heavily touched up.” He added that the lightning is consistent throughout the photo which is hard to replicate on photoshop. "The floor reflection is consistent too. Something I think people would likely mess up if they were faking it."

This is far from the first time that the Trump’s Christmas photo has come under scrutiny. Back in 2018 people were convinced that year’s picture had been edited due to the amount of blurring but the accusation was debunked by the photographer himself.

So there you go folks. Sometimes photos are edited and sometimes people wear the same clothes that they’ve worn before.

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