Claim review · Rating: False (altered image) · Updated 2026-10-26

This Christmas-tree "Michael" photo is edited: what the archived original shows

Short answer: The picture is an edited copy of a photograph of Barack and Michelle Obama in front of a Christmas tree. Full Fact reports that the background was removed and her face and hair were altered. An archived campaign page captions the original “Barack and Michelle spending Christmas in Hawaii.”

Updated 2026-10-26. Part of the larger review: what the originals show.

The claim

Posts on Facebook show a person with short hair and a white top beside Barack Obama and say the image shows “Michael before he transitioned.” Full Fact checked a Facebook post of this kind and published its verdict on 2025-11-27: False.

Side by side: the archived original and the edit

About the photograph

What the originals say

• The archived campaign page is a gallery of photos from Barack Obama's life; one caption reads "Barack and Michelle spending Christmas in Hawaii." Our copy is the Wayback Machine snapshot dated 2008-10-17. Wayback snapshot
• Full Fact says the original shows him with her in front of a Christmas tree, and that "according to an archived version of Barack Obama's website, it was taken in Hawaii." Full Fact, 2025-11-27 (secondary)
• Full Fact says the background has been removed in the Facebook version, her face has been altered and her hair changed, and that the edited image has circulated "since at least 2022," when AFP debunked it; it adds that in earlier versions "the background of the photo was not edited." (secondary)

What we could not confirm

• We opened the archived page. It keeps only a small thumbnail of this photo (101 by 149 pixels). At that size we can see two people posing close together in front of a decorated Christmas tree and a curtain, with a room behind them; we cannot compare facial features, hair or other fine detail against the viral file. The caption on the archived page, and Full Fact's note that the original shows a Christmas tree, match what the thumbnail shows.
• The full-size file is not in the snapshot we found: its address returned "not found." So the description of what was altered rests on Full Fact, not on our own pixel-level comparison.
• We did not read the AFP piece from 2022 that Full Fact refers to. We do not know who first posted the edit.

What was changed, in plain terms

This table follows Full Fact's description and the archived caption. We have not done our own pixel-level comparison of the image files. The original is linked, not hosted.

How the edit spread

• 2008-10-17: The date of the Wayback Machine snapshot that shows the original photo and its caption. This is not necessarily the date the photo was taken or first published. Wayback
• 2022: AFP debunks an edited version, according to Full Fact (we did not read the AFP page).
• 2025-11-27: Full Fact publishes its check of a Facebook post. Full Fact

Sources

How we know

1. Find the earliest primary item: the campaign photo page, through the Wayback Machine, with its caption.
2. Open the snapshot and read the caption; note that only a thumbnail is preserved.
3. Read Full Fact's check for the description of the edit, and cite it as secondary.
4. Date what we can: the snapshot (2008-10-17) and the Full Fact check (2025-11-27).
5. State the limit: no pixel-level comparison, because the full-size original is not available to us.

Related pages

• The larger review: what the originals show
• The other altered photo: the 2019 birthday post
• The 2025 face swap
• Explainers: how image edits are made and spotted

Change log

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