“I’ll THINK THE TIDE IS TURNING IN MIAMI!!” says a May 10, 2026 post sharing the picture on Threads. “So happy to see that the gold tRumple statue at his vermin infested golf motel at Doral is getting THE RESPECT IT DESERVES!! MIAMI IS WAKING UP!!”
Screenshot from Threads taken May 14, 2026
Similar posts spread across platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and X.
The posts followed the dedication May 6 of the 15-foot (4.6-meter) tall statue at the Trump National Doral golf courses in Miami, Florida. Financed by cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and supporters of the Republican president, the statue depicts Trump raising his fist after surviving an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on the campaign trail in 2024.
The statue has raised some eyebrows, with Trump ally and televangelist Mark Burns, who led the dedication ceremony, insisting after its unveiling that the sculpture was not an example of the idol worship forbidden in the Bible’s Ten Commandments.
The ceremony followed a PGA Tour event at Doral and comes as campaigns across the United States have entered the final six-month stretch leading up to November’s midterm elections, which could change the balance of power in Congress and reshape Trump’s second term.
A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted in late April and released in early May found 62 percent of surveyed US adults disapproved of Trump, a mark the Post said was the highest disapproval of his two terms in office (archived here).
But the image depicting the Trump statue defaced is altered.
“This is completely fake,” said Kimberly Benza, director of executive operations and communications for the Trump Organization, which owns the Doral golf club, in a May 14 email to AFP.
Reverse image searches surfaced an unedited version of the photo — in which the statue is not covered in trash — published by the Palm Beach Post as part of an April 28 article charting professional golfers’ reactions to the new Doral display (archived here). The clouds, trees and shadows all match those in the doctored version.
Screenshot from the Palm Beach Post taken May 14, 2026
The original photo is credited to sports reporter Tom D’Angelo. It also appears on Imagn Images, a sports image licensing company, where it is dated to April 28 (archived here).
Hive Moderation, an AI detection tool, assessed that the image may have been altered using artificial intelligence.
The earliest iteration of the doctored version AFP could find was posted May 9 to a meme page on Facebook. AFP contacted the user, but no response was forthcoming.
Read more fact-checks about US politics here.