The White House has acknowledged that it posted a digitally altered photograph of a Minnesota protester following her arrest during a demonstration at a church in Saint Paul.
The image showed Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney, appearing to cry as a law enforcement officer escorted her.
The photograph was shared on the White House’s official X account on Thursday, about 30 minutes after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted an earlier version of the same image.
Highlights
- The White House posted a digitally altered photo of protester Nekima Levy Armstrong appearing to cry during her arrest.
- An AI detector confirmed the altered image shared by the White House and reposted by officials, including VP JD Vance.
- Armstrong was arrested after protesting at a St. Paul church led by an alleged ICE field office director amid tensions over the fatal shooting of Renee Good.
- The Trump administration has a history of sharing AI-generated content depicting exaggerated or false images.
The White House acknowledged that it posted an altered image of a Minnesota protester
Image credits: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
In Noem’s post, Armstrong appeared calm and composed during the arrest.
Online users quickly noticed that the two images appeared nearly identical except for Armstrong’s facial expression.
The New York Times and The Guardian ran the images through an AI detector, which labeled the one shared by the White House as digitally altered.
Several Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, reposted the altered image.
Image credits: KristiNoem/X
When asked about the image, the White House did not directly deny that it had been altered. Instead, media outlets, including CBS News and The Guardian, reported that the White House referred them to a post from Deputy Communications Director Kaelan Dorr.
In that post, Dorr wrote, “YET AGAIN to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our country I share with you this message: Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have regularly shared AI-generated content, including posts in the past year showing Trump as a king and fighter pilot dropping excrement on demonstrators, or a recent image of the president planting the American flag in Greenland.
Image credits: WhiteHouse/X
Armstrong’s arrest occurred amid heightened tensions in Minnesota following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent earlier this month.
Armstrong was among dozens of protesters who entered Cities Church in Saint Paul during a Sunday service to protest what they described as a conflict of interest involving the church’s pastor, David Easterwood, who reportedly also leads an ICE field office.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Armstrong’s arrest earlier Thursday, saying she “allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church.”
Bondi wrote, “WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP.”
The Trump administration has a history of sharing AI-generated content
Image credits: Elizabeth Flores/Getty Images
Noem also commented on X, writing that Armstrong “played a key role in orchestrating the Church Riots,” and said she was being charged under a federal civil rights statute.
“Religious freedom is the bedrock of the United States,” Noem wrote. “There is no first amendment right to obstruct someone from practicing their religion.”
Armstrong, who is a former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Minneapolis, has denied wrongdoing.
Speaking on Tuesday, she called for Easterwood to resign, saying his dual role poses a “fundamental moral conflict.”
“You cannot lead a congregation while directing an agency whose actions have cost lives and inflicted fear in our communities.”
“When officials protect armed agents, repeatedly refuse meaningful investigation into killings like Renee Good’s, and signal they may pursue peaceful protesters and journalists, that is not justice—it is intimidation,” she added.
She previously led protests in the aftermath of high-profile police killings, including those of George Floyd, Philando Castile, and Jamar Clark.
Armstrong’s attorney, Jordan Kushner, insisted he had offered for her to turn herself in peacefully, but the Trump administration insisted on arresting her.
Her husband, Marques Armstrong, said, “They wanted a spectacle,” recalling that around 50 agents came to detain her.
Kushner noted federal prosecutors had attempted to charge journalist Don Lemon in relation to the church protest, but a magistrate judge rejected it. Lemon has stated that he was at the church as a journalist, not a protester.
“Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism which was report on it and talk to the people involved, including the pastor, members of the church, and members of the organization,” Lemon said in a social media video. “That’s it. That’s called journalism.”
Chauntyll Louisa Allen. Image credits: Angelina Katsanis/Getty Images
Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelly were two other individuals who were arrested at the church. FBI Director Kash Patel said Armstrong was arrested in connection with a violation of the FACE Act for interfering with the exercise of religion at a place of worship.
Allen and Kelly were charged with conspiracy to deprive rights, a federal crime.