The White House just used a blatant piece of digital manipulation, posting an altered image of an arrested protester to make her appear both dramatically distraught and to darken her skin tone, as reported by The Guardian. This is something you don’t expect to see in official communications from the government, and frankly, it’s pretty awful.
The woman at the center of this controversy is Nekima Levy Armstrong. She was one of three people arrested in connection with a demonstration that happened over the weekend. That demonstration had disrupted church services in St Paul, Minnesota, because the activists alleged that one of the pastors, David Easterwood, was the acting field director of the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. Attorney General Pam Bondi had announced the arrests on social media earlier.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted an image of Armstrong’s arrest at 10:21 AM on Thursday. That original photo showed a law enforcement agent, whose face was blurred out, escorting a handcuffed Armstrong. In that picture, Armstrong, dressed entirely in black, looks completely composed and calm.
The timeline of the manipulation is what really proves this wasn’t an accident
However, a little more than 30 minutes later, the White House posted a different version of the exact same photograph. In this new version, Armstrong appears to be visibly crying. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, even reposted the doctored image to her own account. When experts compared the two images, the manipulation became undeniable.
By overlaying the White House photo with Secretary Noem’s original post, analysts found that the law enforcement agents in both pictures lined up perfectly, confirming they were the same scene captured at the same moment. You can see the same unidentified person standing in the background behind the arresting agent, and the agent’s arm is positioned behind Armstrong’s back in the exact same spot. The only difference is that the White House version had been edited to exaggerate her emotional state and change her complexion.
If the digital manipulation itself wasn’t bad enough, the White House’s reaction when asked about the alteration is the real nightmare for anyone who cares about truth in government. Instead of offering an explanation or denying the photo was changed, they responded by sending out a post from Kaelan Dorr, the deputy communications director, on the social media platform X.
Dorr didn’t just ignore the question; he actively mocked the people who brought it up, saying, “YET AGAIN to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our country I share with you this message: Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
The fact that an official communication director is openly referring to the use of manipulated images as “memes” that “will continue” is genuinely chilling. It suggests that the administration doesn’t care about factual accuracy when posting to its massive following. Considering the White House X account has about 3.5 million followers, this is a huge platform for disseminating misinformation.
Reports show that this isn’t an isolated incident either; the administration of President Trump has made at least 14 posts using AI or digitally altered content since the start of his second term back in October.
Published: Jan 23, 2026 12:00 pm