QUESTION:

A photo circulating on social media shows Trump's approval rating is at fifty percent, 5 percentage points higher than his predecessor during the same time in Obama's administration. Is the photo real?

ANSWER:

No, it's photoshopped. It looked real enough for Donald Trump Jr. to post it on Instagram for a full day before deleting it.

SOURCES:

CNN article

CNN on-air story

Gallup- Trump Job Approval (Weekly)

PROCESS:

A photo of a TV graphic made its rounds on social media, showing Trump's job approval at an unprecedented fifty percent. That's five percent higher than Obama's approval rating at the same time in his presidency.

Many are calling out the photo for being fake, but is it true?

Our researchers identified the photo originated from CNN, which uses poll numbers from Gallup. By late July, at the time of the CNN report,Gallup's weekly approval poll put Trump's rating at forty, not fifty.

Taking a closer look, our researchers found the picture was intentionally doctored by a third-party to inflate Trump's approval.

Below is the real photo that aired on CNN and a recording of the segment.

Donald Trump Jr. accidentally posted the doctored photo on his Instagram page, before a horde of of people pointed out the faulty editing job. Soon after, the president's son removed the photo.

So we can Verify, the viral image is fake. At the time, Trump's approval approval rating WAS 40 percent, but as of this week, it's at 39 percent.