Donald Trump Campaign Seemingly Suggests Beefcake Trump-As-Rocky Photo Wasn’t ‘Doctored’
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump posted a photo of himself doctored to make it appear as though he was Rocky Balboa. While the internet widely responded with mirth at the image, the official Team Trump campaign Twitter account attacked the media coverage of the image, attempting to refute the claim that the image was photoshopped, according to Newsweek.
The now-infamous image shows Trump’s head on a body that doesn’t appear to be the president’s, wearing boxing trunks and a championship boxing belt as well as sporting well-defined muscles throughout. The media was quick to point out after the image was posted that it wasn’t an accurate representation of Trump’s body, but rather a photoshopped image made to appear as though Trump was Rocky Balboa, the lead character from the Rocky films.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, Trump, who has been reportedly considered “obese,” didn’t pose for the photo.
The controversy might have ended there with some gentle ribbing from critics and some re-tweets from media figures like Piers Morgan, but things exploded when Team Trump decided to weigh in on the issue and suggested that perhaps the photo wasn’t altered after all.
The Washington Post wrote an article about the image, stating that it appears to be an altered photo from the film’s promotional materials. They announced the article with a tweet saying, “Trump tweets doctored photo of his head on Sylvester Stallone’s body, unclear why.”
Team Trump took issue with the claim.
“Washington Post claims — without evidence — that @realDonaldTrump shared a ‘doctored’ photo.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2019
Donald Trump Jr. also jumped in on the argument, jokingly saying that perhaps the image wasn’t altered after all.
“I’ve heard from reliable sources that it’s not doctored,” he said in a tweet.
The Daily Caller had fun with the controversy when reporter Amber Athey took a swipe at the media covering the topic.
“Are any brave journos going to reach out to the White House and ask if this photo is doctored?” she tweeted.
While most of the people asserting that the photo is real are clearly joking, the post from Team Trump wasn’t as clear, leaving questions as to whether the campaign group was trying to “own the libs” or truly assert that the photo might be real. Historian Kevin M. Kruse weighed in, saying the tweet was a genuine attempt to claim it was authentic.
“Team Trump is demanding to see some hard evidence that the picture Donald Trump shared that showed his head on Sylvester Stone’s body in Rocky III is, in fact, a doctored image,” he wrote. “No, seriously.”
