Are The Viral Photos of a Once-Pregnant Michelle Obama Real?
A number of photos of a supposedly pregnant Michelle Obama have gone viral, leaving many asking if the former first lady is pregnant.
The answer to that is no. Each photo is a fake.
As for what the viral hoax might reveal about the Obamas and others around them, that story runs much deeper.
First, we can say beyond all doubt that the photos are inauthentic.
In fact, Snopes “confirmed” the fakery last week. While the Snopes fact-checkers themselves often require fact-checking, this particular fact-check is rock-solid, as we shall see.
According to Snopes, two AI-detecting online tools showed that artificial intelligence produced the Michelle Obama pregnancy photos.
The photos in question went viral after one social media user, “Charlotte, The Baroness,” posted them to X, formerly Twitter, on Sept. 20.
“BREAKING: Michelle Obama silences ALL conspiracy theorists and demands a universal apology after FINALLY releasing glowing pregnancy photos when she was expecting Sasha and Malia,” an accompanying tweet read.
BREAKING:
Michelle Obama silences ALL conspiracy theorists and demands a universal apology after FINALLY releasing glowing pregnancy photos when she was expecting Sasha and Malia. pic.twitter.com/rMFs3XbqF9
— Charlotte, The Baroness 💫 (@CharlotteEmmaUK) September 20, 2023
For the record, Charlotte, The Baroness, did not take the photos seriously.
“Oh dear. People think it’s true! What have I done,” she later cheekily tweeted.
Oh dear. People think it’s true! What have I done 😱
— Charlotte, The Baroness 💫 (@CharlotteEmmaUK) September 20, 2023
Two days later, after the photos went viral, Charlotte, The Baroness, confirmed that she knew about their AI origins.
“Yep it was a joke. Of course I knew it was AI when I posted it…my caption was a joke and thought I made that obvious with my wording – clearly not,” she tweeted.
Yep it was a joke. Of course I knew it was AI when I posted it…my caption was a joke and thought I made that obvious with my wording – clearly not 🤦🏻♀️😂
— Charlotte, The Baroness 💫 (@CharlotteEmmaUK) September 22, 2023
It is worth noting that Charlotte, The Baroness, has more than 70,000 followers. These include medical freedom advocate Jay Bhattacharya and the irreverent conservative account “Catturd.”
As of today, her pinned tweet featured a photo of her wearing a fake “Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself” sweatshirt.
Somehow little old me has managed to reach the lofty heights of over 70k followers 😱🙀
WTAF?!
Thank you all. Twitter has both ruined my life and enhanced it massively in various ways
Love you all – even the haters ❤️🥹😘 pic.twitter.com/ajsLJ5XtaT
— Charlotte, The Baroness 💫 (@CharlotteEmmaUK) September 22, 2023
Clearly, therefore, Charlotte, The Baroness, does not profile as an Obama supporter.
Thus, the fact-check itself has comic elements about it.
Beyond the hilarity, however, there remains the question of why these bad photo hoaxes went viral in the first place.
Here even Snopes proved useful.
“Although we cannot confirm that no pictures identified as such exist, or are available to the public, our efforts to find them using open-source tools have so far been unsuccessful,” the Snopes fact-checker wrote.
The phrase “pictures identified as such” referred to authentic Michelle Obama pregnancy photos, which some people believe do not exist. Snopes could not find them. To date, no one has.
Indeed, photos of Michelle Obama pregnant with either of her two daughters, Sasha or Malia, remain elusive.
This fact has given rise to conspiratorial speculation, including from QAnon sources, that Sasha and Malia have natural parents other than Michelle and former President Barack Obama.
That speculation has roots in another conspiracy theory, namely that Michelle Obama was born male.
The late Joan Rivers made this oft-repeated claim to a reporter on June 30, 2014.
On June 30, 2014, Joan Rivers made a bizarre statement about First Lady Michelle Obama to a reporter alluding that Michelle was a Transexual and that Barack Obama was the first gay President. it would be her last statement, Rivers passed from cardiac arrest on September 4, 2014. pic.twitter.com/EeQaYkxYo4
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) April 30, 2023
Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson helped revive questions about Barack Obama’s sexual preferences in an interview uploaded to X on Sept. 6.
WARNING: The following video contains language and descriptions that the viewer may find offensive
Ep. 22 Larry Sinclair says he had a night of crack cocaine-fueled sex with Barack Obama, and that Obama came back for more the next day. Assess for yourself. Here’s our interview. pic.twitter.com/R6CXwKv6gs
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 6, 2023
For her part, according to BBC, Michelle Obama claimed in her 2018 book “Becoming” that she became pregnant with her daughters through in vitro fertilization.
The present article makes no endorsement of any speculations about the Obamas. It posits no answers to existing conspiracy theories and offers no new ones either.
It does suggest, however, that conspiracy theories exist for reasons that do not require us to assess their accuracy.
In this case, strange theories persist about the former first couple’s personal lives because in so many other ways the Obamas do not seem truthful.
While still president, for instance, Barack Obama knew about the Hillary Clinton campaign’s Russia collusion hoax.
“From Justice to the CIA, the Obama administration politicized a host of nonpartisan institutions to stain the Trump campaign and then sabotage the Trump administration,” the New York Post wrote in Oct. 2020.
The Obamas’ also regularly play the sort of identity politics that consigns black people and other minorities to permanent victim status. Yet they own a sprawling estate on Martha’s Vineyard.
Furthermore, they remain on that estate near the ocean despite incessant fear-mongering about climate change and rising sea levels.
In short, the Obamas ooze hypocrisy, and people can’t help but notice.
Likewise, in a much broader sense, the entire U.S. government operates in an atmosphere of intense secrecy. Government officials reveal neither actions nor motives and then classify everything.
Government narratives fall apart, exposing lies for which no one suffers consequences. It has been that way for decades.
In such an environment, whom should we blame for widespread suspicions of government officials and their associates? The conspiracy theorists? Or the establishment liars who turn those theorists into realists?
Of course, not everyone notices or seems to care about the hypocrisies of the powerful. The establishment media, after all, dotes on the former first couple.
For instance, in a 2018 story about Michelle Obama’s revelation that she had a miscarriage and struggled with feelings of inadequacy, CBS described the former first lady as “a source of inspiration and a paragon of physical strength” to many Americans.
“So, if she felt broken, if she felt like she failed, if she felt as if her body didn’t work, then, hopefully, by speaking out she can be a beacon for countless other women across the country who have silently felt the same,” according to an enthralled CBS.
Perhaps Michelle Obama told the truth about her pregnancies.
That swooning commentary from CBS would read much differently if she did not. Everything about the Obamas would.
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