Photos of Keanu Reeves holding shirts with political messages are altered

Social media users edited a 2017 photo of actor Keanu Reeves to show him holding T-shirts supporting an array of political positions. One of its most recent iterations is an attack on Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

An Oct. 30 Facebook post wishing Reeves a happy birthday includes a photo of the actor holding a blue shirt. 

“All I want for Christmas is to never hear her cackle again,” the shirt says, with an image of Santa Claus dressed in tactical gear and holding a large weapon. Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, Republicans have mocked Harris’ laugh; President-elect Donald Trump gave her the nickname “Laffin’ Kamala.”

The photo has been shared by multiple users, amassing more than 2 million views. The posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

An Oct. 27 post has the same image of Reeves holding a shirt. This time it’s a different color with a different message. 

“Make prison great again,” says a green shirt with a photo of Trump in an orange jumpsuit sitting behind bars. 

In mid-September posts the shirt was red and said “Never stop fighting for America” and showed a photo of Trump with his fist raised after a July 13 assassination attempt. 

One Facebook account has shared the photo of Reeves with multiple messages.

“We owe illegals nothing and our veterans everything,” the shirt says in an Oct. 30 post with a photo of the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial.

But Reeves wasn’t photographed holding any of those shirts; he wasn’t photographed holding a shirt at all. The image social media users altered is from a November 2017 press conference during EICMA, an international motorcycle exhibition in Milan, Italy. 

Actor Keanu Reeves stands during the unveiling of his Arch motorcycles at the EICMA exhibition motorcycling fair in Milan, Italy, Nov. 8, 2017. (AP)

We looked for, but found no evidence, such as news reports or press releases, that Reeves endorsed Trump or Harris. In 2022, Reeves’ publicist told KTLA-TV that “Reeves does not participate in ANY form of social media, nor has he ever done so in the past or plan to do so in the future.”

We rate claims this is an authentic image of Reeves False.

By

Maria Ramirez Uribe

Staff writer

November 8, 2024

Truth-o-meter Ruling

False

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

• These images were altered. The original photo shows actor Keanu Reeves in November 2017, and he was not holding a shirt. ​

Statement

Photos show Keanu Reeves hawking T-shirts with political messages.

Context

a Facebook post

Speaker/Target

Speaker: Facebook posts

Statement Date

October 30, 2024