The White House published an image on X in which the face of a protester had been altered using AI to depict her weeping during her arrest — instead of striking a stoic pose, as she actually looked during the event.
The woman in the image, civil rights attorney and organizer Nekima Levy Armstrong, was arrested this week after interrupting a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota. The protesters were calling for the resignation of a pastor at the church, whom they say is the acting director of an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in St. Paul, Minnesota. Levy Armstrong and other protesters are now being charged with federal conspiracy and intimidation charges, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Trump Administration officials have repeatedly characterized the protest as a “riot” and an attack on Christian worshipers; speaking to CNN on Wednesday before her arrest, Levy Armstrong defended the action as a “peaceful nonviolent demonstration.”
On Thursday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem published a photo on X of Levy Armstrong’s arrest. Levy Armstrong appears to be handcuffed as she was escorted through an office space by a federal agent. In this image, Levy Armstrong isn’t crying. She’s also wearing bright pink lipstick, and her mouth is closed.
Roughly 30 minutes later, things got decidedly more bizarre when the official White House X account also published an image on X purportedly depicting Levy Armstrong’s arrest. But in this version of the photo, Levy Armstrong is pictured sobbing, with visible tears streaming down her cheeks and her mouth open. Her pink lipstick, notably, is gone.
“ARRESTED,” reads large, bolded text, inserted over the image of Levy Armstrong allegedly sobbing. “FAR LEFT AGITATOR NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG FOR ORCHESTRATING CHURCH RIOTS IN MINNESOTA.”
Everything else about the image, however, is the same, including the positioning of Levy Armstrong’s body, the agent, and the background.
As CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale soon confirmed, the image had been altered to make it look as though Levy Armstrong was crying during her arrest.
Can you please provide comment on why this image was manipulated using AI to make it appear that the woman was crying? pic.twitter.com/Z2anIsoLan — MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) January 22, 2026
Journalists and lawyers, among others, were quick to point out the discrepancy, taking to social media to show the stark difference between the two images.
The White House posted an edited photo of the activist involved in the Minneapolis church protest, made to look like she was crying. — Drew Harwell (@drewharwell.com) 2026-01-22T18:14:13.408Z
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