Fact Check: Trump Holding Hun Sen’s Photo Altered
Prime Minister Hun Sen has always been criticized and verbally attacked by supporters and former leaders of CNRP on social media. Meanwhile a photo showing former US president, Donald Trump, holding a photo of Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, with text overlaid saying "Our next target is the dictator Hun Sen" was posted on Facebook. This photo was reacted with mixed comments and reshared recently by the social media users speaking Khmer. However, after running Google Reverse Image, it proves that the photo above is actually altered.
This is about our investigation of this claim.
Social Media Claim
On July 10, 2019, one of the Facebook users posted a photo showing a former US president, Donald Trump, holding a photo of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. It was also accompanied by the text overlaid in the photo which means “Our next destination is dictator Hun Sen”. This photo was shared several times, with mixed reactions from Facebook users who are speaking Khmer.
The following is an excerpt from a Facebook user's post that reads in Khmer and translates in English as “We, Khmers, have to stand up and defeat the dictator, the United Nations is waiting to help us and traitors cannot be in power anymore”.
Fact Check
Fact Crescendo Cambodia had started to check and verify this photo directly by running a Google Reverse Image search, which brought us to the sources containing the following photos.
A photo of the exact same form and shape had been published on a news website called China Daily on January 24, 2017. The report confirmed that Donald Trump had signed to decide to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The signing took place in the President's Oval Office. Below is the screenshot captured from a news website with the caption “Trump signs executive order to withdraw US from TPP”.
China Daily’s Report | Archived Link
The Washington Post also published a photo of the same format in its report on January 23, 2017. This website added that US President Donald Trump had decided to sign an order ordering his country to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
An additional image from The Washington Post, which did not feature a photo of Prime Minister Hun Sen, held by Donald Trump.
The Washington Post's Report | Archived Link
A photo showing the scene of Donald Trump signing to leave the Trans-Pacific Partnership was also found on Alamy, a major audio-visual website on January 23. 2017. It was attached with the capture that says in English that “Washington DC, USA. 23rd January, 2017. United States President Donald Trump shows the Executive Order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)”.
Alamy Stock Photo | Archived Link
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You may find the details of this fact-check in Khmer language here as well.
Conclusion
Fact Crescendo Cambodia has found that the photo posted and claimed by the above users was edited before it was posted on social media. This photo actually was when Trump shows the Executive Order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
