Fact Check: Is Photo of Trump Kissing Natalie Harp on Golf Course Real? - Newsweek

Images claiming to show President Donald Trump kissing his executive assistant, Natalie Harp, on a golf course have circulated widely on social media, prompting questions about whether they are genuine.

The images emerged amid heightened attention on Harp and her working relationship with Trump. This month, the White House defended $45,000 Christmas gifts to Harp and two other aides that were revealed in financial disclosures released by the administration.

A spokesperson recently told Newsweek they were “entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards."

It came after Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia criticized Trump’s relationship with Harp during a rally in August, accusing him of preferring to "travel with Natalie" than do his job. He said, in a subsequent interview, that he had specifically mentioned Harp because he’d heard she was “referred to as his security blanket," adding senior aides are “not telling him what he needs to hear."

The White House has not publicly responded to the images.

Newsweek contacted the White House on Tuesday, via email outside of normal working hours, for comment.

Multiple social media posts shared two images that claimed to show Trump embracing and kissing Harp on a golf course.

The images circulated alongside comments treating the purported encounter as genuine, including allegations that Trump and Harp were engaged in an intimate relationship.

Other users questioned whether the pictures had been created using artificial intelligence. One post on X has garnered more than 1.4 million views while others have tens of thousands.

The claim is that the images are authentic and show Trump kissing Harp on a golf course.

No established news organization, official White House photographer or photo agency has been identified as the source of either image. Searches of White House material and photographs published by AP, Reuters and Getty Images did not locate a corresponding image from the purported encounter.

The two circulating pictures appear to be versions of the same scene rather than independent photographs corroborating one another. One is clearer, while the other is blurred and contains fewer details that can be examined.

The higher-resolution version contains several visual irregularities associated with AI-generated imagery. Harp’s visible hand appears to have six fingers, while parts of the golf equipment and background lack consistent shapes and detail. The lower-resolution image is too degraded for some of those anomalies to be seen clearly, but blurring an image does not establish that the underlying scene is authentic.

Newsweek also submitted both versions to Grok, the AI assistant developed by xAI. Its assessment was consistent with the anomalies outlined above. Grok said no single irregularity proved fabrication but concluded that the combined evidence was characteristic of an AI-generated image that had subsequently been blurred or compressed.

Newsweek further asked ChatGPT to assess the files. It said the irregularities described above were consistent with AI generation or substantial digital manipulation and found no useful camera, date, location or editing metadata embedded in either image. ChatGPT cautioned that metadata is often removed during online sharing and therefore cannot settle the question alone, but assessed fabrication as the more likely explanation.

OpenAI’s verification tool found no SynthID watermark or trusted C2PA record linking the image to OpenAI products, but cautioned that this did not rule out its creation with another AI system.

Harp does work closely with Trump and has accompanied him at public events and golf outings, but genuine photographs of the two together do not authenticate the circulating images or support claims of an intimate relationship. Her official financial disclosure identifies her as a “special assistant to the president and executive assistant to the president”.

Public attention on Harp intensified after Ossoff referred to her while criticizing Trump’s work habits and travel. Sarah Matthews, a deputy White House press secretary during President Donald Trump's first term, said on CNN's Laura Coates Live in August that Harp's closeness to Trump had "alarmed" the Secret Service and unnerved his 2024 campaign staff.

Last week, the White House branded journalist Aaron Rupar a “sick, deluded freak” after he posted a photo of Harp at a welcome function for Trump at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Dublin on X, along with the caption "Look who made the trip to Ireland! #TravelWithNatalie.”

The attention surrounding Harp helps explain why the purported photographs spread, but none of it establishes that the images are authentic or that Trump and Harp have an intimate relationship.

The images do not authentically show Trump kissing Harp on a golf course. No verified source for the purported photographs has been identified, and the clearer version contains visual anomalies associated with AI generation, including what appears to be a sixth finger on Harp’s hand. The two pictures are versions of the same unverified scene, not separate images confirming that the encounter occurred.

Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.