Old image altered to look like it was taken at a Trump rally

Thousands of former President Donald Trump’s supporters gathered in Michigan on April 2 to hear him speak at a rally. But an image of a woman giving a Nazi salute wasn’t taken there, as some social media posts are claiming. 

In the image, the woman is wearing a shirt bearing a swastika and she stands in front of what looks like an illustration of Trump appearing as Jesus. 

“Trump rally – let’s see you’ve got your Nazi swastikas, Sieg Heil Hitler salute, individuals wrapped in both Confederate and Nazi flags. But I believe the pièce de résistance here has to be the massive painting of Trump as Jesus Christ their savior. These folks are just swell,” one April 3 tweet said. 

“This picture was taken last night at Trump’s rally,” another tweet said. “It shows exactly how far they have devolved.”

A reverse image search of the photo shows that it wasn’t taken at the Trump rally, or this year. 

In fact, it has been altered. Earlier versions of the image show it flipped, and with the woman standing in front of a plaque, not an illustration of Trump. 

By searching for some of the words visible in the plaque, we identified it as an inscription acknowledging the Treaty of the Holston on the courthouse square in Knoxville, Tennessee. 

We found another image of what appears to be the same woman holding a “white pride” flag in a Facebook post that says “Neo-Nazi Rally and March against immigration, Knoxville, August 2010.” 

Searching for the words “Knoxville” and “Nazi” in August 2010, we found an Aug. 14, 2010, Knoxville New Sentinel video posted to YouTube showing a rally at the courthouse after members of the National Socialist Movement marched there that day. The Southern Poverty Law Center says the National Socialist Movement “was once one of the largest and most active neo-Nazi groups in the United States.” 

This particular march predates Trump’s candidacy and presidency by several years.

We rate claims that this photo was taken at Trump’s rally Pants on Fire.