Photo of University of Mississippi students with 'Trump won' flag is altered | Fact check
The claim: Image shows Ole Miss student protesters holding pro-Trump banner
Ole Miss students and counter-protesters Rouse Boyce and Connor Moore stand on a picnic table outside the J.D. Williams Library on the quad at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. during a pro-Palestine protest on May 2, 2024.
A May 5 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a group of students holding a large red banner outside the J.D. Williams Library at the University of Mississippi.
“Trump won, Democrats cheated!” reads the banner.
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The image’s caption says, “This gives me hope for our youth!”
The post was liked more than 15,000 times in four days.
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Our rating: Altered
The “Trump won” banner was digitally added to the image. The original photo shows the students holding a U.S. flag.
‘Trump won’ flag edited into image from Ole Miss campus protest
A nearly identical photo of the students was shared in a viral post on X, formerly Twitter, on May 3, a day after pro-Palestinian demonstrators faced off with counter-protesters at the University of Mississippi.
But that original photo shows the group of students posing with a U.S. flag. It was shared before the image in the Instagram post began circulating online.
The photo of the students with the U.S. flag also includes elements that are covered up in the altered version, such as the thumb of a student gripping the bottom portion of the flag. The see-through fabric of the U.S. flag also reveals details of the students standing behind it. These details are obscured in the manipulated image.The “Trump won” banner in the altered image also shares the same
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Photographs published by The Daily Mississippian place the students in the image at the campus protest on May 2. One
The campus protest gained national attention in part because of viral footage of a student who appeared to mimic a monkey toward a Black pro-Palestinian demonstrator, USA TODAY reported. The student was removed from his fraternity, and the University of Mississippi opened a conduct investigation.
The Instagram user who shared the image did not immediately return a request for comment.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Photo of University of Mississippi students with ‘Trump won’ flag is altered | Fact check