President Donald Trump has declared the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, but images of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wearing a hat riffing on Trump’s MAGA catchphrase isn’t authentic.
“Make America Mexicana again,” reads the white text on a red hat donned by a woman wearing sunglasses in an image spreading on social media.
“Mexican President wears Make America Mexico Again hat,” text over the image of a Jan. 15 Threads post said.
It was 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.)
Though it’s cropped out of the image that appears in the post, a faint watermark appears in the bottom right corner in other versions. The watermark signals that Grok, an artificial intelligence chatbot from entrepreneur Elon Musk’s company xAI, created the image.
A Sheinbaum spokesperson told Reuters the image isn’t real.
We found no credible original sources to corroborate claims that it’s an authentic photo.
We rate claims it is a photo of Sheinbaum False.
Truth-o-meter Ruling
IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
-
This isn’t an authentic image of the Mexican president. A watermark on some versions of the image signaled it was created using artificial intelligence.
Statement
Context
a Threads postSpeaker/Target
Statement Date
Our Sources
Instagram post, Feb. 10, 2025
Threads post, Jan. 15, 2025
X post, Jan. 8, 2025
Reuters, Fact Check: Mexico president did not wear a ‘Make America Mexicana Again’ cap, Feb. 4, 2025
xAI website, visited Feb. 12, 2025
The New York Times, In Latest A.I. War Escalation, Elon Musk Releases Chatbot Code, March 17, 2025
Translations
Language: en