Sen. Lindsey Graham Poses with Shirtless UFC Fighters at the White House — Except the Fighters Were Wearing Suits
|
|
4+
Platforms
|
Thousands
Shares
|
|
~14 Days
To debunk
|
High
Fooled Index
|
|
|
|
MANIPULATED — This image was made with AI using a real photo from Sen. Graham’s own social media. In the original, both men are wearing suits.
|
|
On June 14, 2026, the UFC held its Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn of the White House, and Sen. Lindsey Graham was there. Graham posted a photo on his own X and Facebook accounts that same night — him standing between two men in dark suits — with the caption, “Looking forward to the fights. Happy birthday, @POTUS!”
Sometime after that, someone ran the photo through AI software and turned the two men in suits into two shirtless, muscular UFC fighters standing on either side of Graham. The fake version spread across Facebook, X, Threads, and Reddit. On Facebook, one user posted it with the caption “Happy Pride Month,” and another wrote “His dream come true of being in the middle of 2 big sweaty men.” Both posts played on an old, unsubstantiated rumor about Graham’s personal life that has circled online for years.
Snopes investigated and published their findings on June 28, 2026 — someone had used AI to alter Graham’s authentic photo. Graham’s own accounts still show the original, and in that photo, the two men beside him are wearing suits, not bare chests. Snopes could not identify who made the fake.
The image fooled enough people that Snopes received multiple reader requests asking whether it was real, and it circulated for roughly two weeks across four platforms before anyone with reach flagged it as fake. By then, the joke had already spread, and the photo had become part of the political noise surrounding the UFC White House event.
|
|
| 🔍 |
The original photo is still online. Graham posted it on his own X and Facebook on June 14, with the caption “Looking forward to the fights. Happy birthday, @POTUS!” In that version, the two people standing beside him are wearing dark suits.
|
|
|
| ✋ |
The skin has no texture. Both shirtless men in the fake have smooth, even skin with no marks, no veins, no scars, and no body hair — and the light hits both chests at the same flat angle without casting a single shadow on Graham’s jacket.
|
|
|
| 👔 |
The clothes vanished. Someone used AI to erase the suits from the original photo and replace them with bare skin and fighter shorts, and the edges where the clothing used to be have a soft, blurred quality that the rest of the image does not share.
|
|
|
| 📸 |
Graham’s own posts tell a different story. Graham posted the photo on his official X and Facebook accounts on June 14, and in that image, the people standing beside the senator are in suits and formal attire — the same scene the AI later altered to show shirtless fighters.
|
|
|
|
🚨 100% AI-Manipulated
Someone took a real photo from Sen. Graham’s own social media accounts and used AI tools to remove the suits from the two men beside him, turning them into shirtless UFC fighters. The original photo, with everyone fully clothed, is still on Graham’s X and Facebook pages.
|
|
|
|
KATSEYE “Fires” Singer Manon Bannerman — But the Statement Was Made by AI
|
|
On June 28, X user @kaplanseer posted a graphic that looked like an official statement from the pop group KATSEYE, saying singer Manon Bannerman had been “sacked” from the group, and the post hit 1.5 million views within hours. Fans panicked across X, Instagram, and fan forums, but the fake fell apart because of one thing the creator forgot to remove — Instagram’s “Made With AI” label, which sat right at the bottom of the graphic. Manon has been on hiatus since February for health reasons, and her bandmates told Allure in a recent interview that her place in the group is still open and she can take all the time she needs.
|
|
|
A Beluga Whale “Escaped” an Alaska Aquarium to Find Her Baby — The Whole Thing Was AI
|
|
In late June, a story spread across social media about a beluga whale that broke out of a research facility in Seward, Alaska, and swam hundreds of miles to reunite with her calf, and the posts included dramatic AI-generated photos of the whale leaping from its tank into the ocean. The story had enough emotional detail — the whale circling the same wall for days, seeming to memorize the way out — that thousands of people shared it without checking. The Alaska SeaLife Center, the only research aquarium in Seward, posted on June 25 that the entire story was false and the images came from AI, and Snopes confirmed the debunk on June 27.
|
|
|
“Valor” Becomes the First Dog to Get the Congressional Medal of Honor — No Dog Ever Has
|
|
A post circulating in late June claimed that a military dog named Valor became the first dog to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor in May 2023, and it included AI-generated images of what appeared to be a formal military ceremony with a German Shepherd at the center. Snopes flagged the post on June 27, 2026. The military awards the Medal of Honor to members of the U.S. armed forces, and while military working dogs have received other commendations, no animal has ever received it — making the entire post and every image in it fake from start to finish.
|
|
YOUR REALITY DETECTOR TOOLKIT |
|
Today’s Skill: Spotting the Emotional Hook
Fakes spread fastest when they make you feel something strong — and today’s stories used laughter, heartbreak, and panic to get you to share before you check.
|
|
01
|
Check the person’s own accounts first
If a photo claims to show a public figure doing something unusual, go to that person’s official X, Facebook, or Instagram page and look for the original. In today’s main story, Senator Graham’s real photo — two men in suits, not shirtless fighters — was right there on his own accounts the entire time.
|
|
|
|
02
|
Ask yourself: am I sharing this because it’s true, or because it’s funny?
The Graham photo spread because it made people laugh, the beluga story spread because it made people feel warm, and the KATSEYE hoax spread because it made fans panic. If your first impulse is to share something, take that impulse as a signal to check it first.
|
|
|
|
03
|
Look for the “Made With AI” label
Some platforms now tag images that AI tools created, and the tag is usually small and easy to miss if you’re scrolling fast. Before you share an image, scroll to the bottom of it and look for a label. The KATSEYE fake had Instagram’s “Made With AI” tag right at the bottom of the graphic, and people shared it anyway because they never looked down that far.
|
|
|
|
|
