Donald Trump has waded into the Kate Middleton photo editing scandal by saying it “shouldn’t be a big deal.”
The Republican nominee was giving an interview to British broadcaster and former politician Nigel Farage on GB News when he made the comments.
“That shouldn’t be a big deal because everybody doctors,” Trump said of the picture controversy. “You look at these movie actors and you see a movie actor and you meet them and you say ‘Is that the same person in the picture?’
“And I looked at that [Kate’s photo] and it was a very minor doctoring, I don’t understand why there could be such a howl over it.”
In the interview that aired last night, Trump also added that Kate was having a “rough period”.
Trump and Fake Images
Trump’s comments that doctoring photos is no big deal are particularly interesting in the context of the 2024 presidential election in which fears over manipulated images and disinformation are swirling.
The former president recently shared an AI image of himself praying with six fingers and his supporters have circulated AI-generated images of Trump embracing Black people.
His comments come after Kate took the blame for editing errors found in a family portrait shared over a week ago to mark Mother’s Day in the U.K.
The photo debacle came in the midst of Kate’s public absence leading to rumors about her health and whereabouts. On January 17, Kensington Palace announced the Princess of Wales was having “planned abdominal surgery” and was unlikely to participate in any public engagement until after Easter.
But after major news agencies, including the Associated Press, issued a rare “kill” notice on Kate’s Mother’s Day photo, speculation has intensified on both sides of the Atlantic. Last week, more Americans Googled “Kate Middleton” than “Donald Trump” or “Joe Biden”.
And yesterday, another photo credited to Kate was labeled as “digitally manipulated” by a major news organization (Getty Images) after blatant photo editing artifacts was found in a picture of Queen Elizabeth II surrounded by 10 of her grandchildren.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.