No, Secret Service Agents Were Not ‘Smiling’ After Donald Trump’s Shooting

A day after former US President Donald Trump was shot at during a rally in Pennsylvania on Sunday, 14 July, social media users shared a photo of him being surrounded by Secret Service (SS) agents on social media.

The claim: The photo, which shows SS agents smiling while a bleeding Trump raised his fist in the air, is being shared to claim that the incident was "staged" or a "photo op," questioning why his protective detail was smiling.

At the time of writing this report, this post by X user 'CoffeyTimeNews' was viewed over 15 lakh times.

(Archives of more posts sharing this photo with the claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

But...?: The photo is altered. The original photo does not show any of the Secret Service members smiling.

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How did we find out the truth?: A simple reverse image search using Google Lens led us to several social media posts (links here and here) which carried a similar photo, but did not show the SS agents smiling.

• One can see the difference in the images below.

• The unaltered photo was published by numerous news organisations such as Business Insider and Business Standard, which we found by using the keywords 'Trump shot photo'.

  (Swipe to view both images.)

• One of these reports credited the image to one 'Evan Vucci', whose Instagram account has a series of photos from the moment Trump was shot at.

• None of them show any of the agents smiling.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Evan Vucci (@evanvucci)

Vucci, an Associated Press photographer, also recounted his experience and the moment of the shooting in a video shared by the AP.

"The moment I heard the shots being fired, I knew that this was a moment in American history that had to be documented."

AP photojournalist Evan Vucci shares what it was like to capture the moment shots were fired at a rally where former President Donald Trump was injured. pic.twitter.com/F59xFqta8c

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 14, 2024

Conclusion: An altered photo is being shared to falsely claim that the Secret Service agents who were a part of Donald Trump's protective detail, were smiling after the latter was shot at.

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