Fact check: Altered image of Dr. Oz kissing Trump Hollywood star spreads online

Dezimey Kum, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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The claim: Image shows Dr. Mehmet Oz kissing Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

A viral image of Senate candidate and celebrity surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz that purports to show the Pennsylvania office-seeker kissing former President Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has misled some social media users.

"Mehmet Oz only cares about one thing – and it isn’t Pennsylvania," reads the caption on the photo in an Aug. 21 Facebook post.

The photo also gained traction on Twitter, with one post accumulating over 4,000 retweets and 23,000 likes in less than a week. The photo surfaced in an array of other Facebook posts as well.

However, this photo isn't real. An image of Dr. Oz kissing his own Hollywood star and an image of Trump's star were combined to create the picture.

A digital forensic expert and a spokesperson for Oz’s Senate campaign told USA TODAY the photo is altered.

Facebook user @TheAleParty told USA TODAY the picture was created as satire and took credit for creating it in a later Facebook post. The original version of the photo posted Aug. 18 includes an attribution to The Ale Party, though many versions circulating on social media crop that out.

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USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the claim for comment.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz greets supporters after the primary race resulted in an automatic re-count due to close results on May 17, 2022 in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz greets supporters after the primary race resulted in an automatic re-count due to close results on May 17, 2022 in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

Image is manipulated

The original image shows Oz kissing his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was captured by AP photographer Chris Pizzello on Feb. 11 during the unveiling of Oz's star. The creases on Oz's suit and pin on his lapel in the photo appear to be identical to the photoshopped image.

"I can confirm that the circulating image of Dr. Oz kissing Trump's Walk of Fame star is photoshopped and inauthentic," Rachel Tripp, a spokesperson for Oz's Senate campaign told USA TODAY in an email.

The image of Trump’s star was taken by AFP photographer Mark Ralston in May 2017 and displays the same cracks and dark areas as the altered image. Trump’s plaque was installed in 2007, and it has undergone numerous repairs since being vandalized in 2016, 2019 and 2020. Recent photos show no damage.

"This is a clear case of photo manipulation," said Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California Berkeley’s School of Information. Farid created a two-frame GIF animation to show how the image of Trump's star was edited into the photo bearing Oz's name.

Trump endorsed Oz in April as his pick in the Pennyslvania Senate race.  The seat is up for grabs because of the impending retirement of Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. Oz faces Democrat John Fetterman, who is currently Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, in the Nov. 8 general election.

Our rating: Altered

Based on our research, we rate ALTERED an image that purports to show Dr. Oz kissing Trump's Hollywood star. A photo of Trump's plaque from 2017 was edited to swap in parts of a photo of Oz kissing his own star taken early this year in February.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Photo altered to show Dr. Oz kissing Trump Hollywood star