False: A viral image purportedly shows Nazi supporters at a Trump rally with a Jesus-like picture of Trump in the background.

By: Annie Priya
April 7 2022

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The original photo is from a 2010 Nazi rally in Knoxville. The background image is a digital overlay, depicting Trump as Christ.In April 2022, following a protest about former U.S. President Donald J Trump in Michigan, a doctored image was circulated on social media that purportedly showed a woman in a swastika t-shirt giving a Nazi salute in front of a Jesus-like portrait of Trump. However, the viral image was created by altering a photograph taken in August 2010 at a neo-Nazi rally in Knoxville, Tennessee. Through a reverse image search, we found a similar image in ms-99, an online shopping website. The original image shows the woman in the swastika t-shirt standing in front of a historical marker commemorating the Treaty of the Holston, not a portrait of Trump as Jesus Christ. The Historical Marker Database noted that the Treaty of the Holston marker seen in the background of the original photograph is located in Knoxville, Tennessee, in Knox County, exactly where the National Socialist Movement protest took place in 2010. Also, the marker number is 1E-33 which is the same as seen in the viral post. According to an article published by Knoxville News-Sentinel on August 15, 2010, about 50-60 members of the Detroit-based National Socialist Movement marched from Market Square to the courthouse on Main Street carrying Nazi signs. Also, Logically found several additional photographs of the 2010 neo-Nazi rally on Flickr. A similar image of the woman has circulated online, in which she can be seen holding a white pride flag in front of the Treaty of the Holston marker. Furthermore, a video uploaded by the Knoxville News-Sentinel on YouTube on August 15, 2010, shows the woman at the forefront of the event. Her arm tattoo is identical in both the video and the viral image.