Piers Morgan said he thought a picture of Donald Trump wearing kneepads was a real image of the president preparing for his “high stakes” summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that he deleted the photo when he realized it was fake.
The British tabloid host went on to claim that the satirical pic of Trump merely came across his social media feed and he immediately reposted it alongside well-wishes to Trump.
Needless to say, Morgan faced a flood of mockery for posting the mocked-up photo of the president, something he acknowledged after deleting the image.
Hours before Trump actually touched down in Alaska for the summit with Putin, which is part of an attempt by the president to secure a ceasefire agreement in the bloody Ukraine-Russia war, Morgan – who has enjoyed a long (and fraught) friendship with Trump – posted an altered picture of the president exiting Air Force One. Apparently believing this was a live photo and that the president had just landed in Anchorage, the Piers Morgan Uncensored host delivered a message of hope ahead of Trump’s meeting with Putin.
“As President [Donald Trump] lands in Alaska, I wish him the very best of luck in trying to secure an end to the horrendous war in Ukraine,” Morgan tweeted. “It’s refreshing to see a U.S. president who genuinely prefers peace to war.”
With the picture showing a waving Trump donning bright red kneepads, it didn’t take long for Morgan to get inundated with comments from other users on X asking him if he was aware that he had shared a meme that was mocking the president.
“Did you intentionally post a photo with Trump wearing knee pads or are [you] just an idiot? Evil or idiot? Which is it?” one poster pressed Morgan, prompting the presenter to chalk it up his tweet to ignorance.
“No.. I didn’t see the kneepads on that pic, so just deleted and reposted with a different pic!” Morgan replied.
In response to journalist Tara Palmeri wondering what had happened because the post was “quickly deleted,” Morgan gave a more detailed explanation.
“I saw the pic on my feed and mistakenly believed it was a live one, and didn’t spot the mocked up kneepads,” he replied to Palmeri. “I couldn’t understand why so many people were laughing and raging about it. Then I realized, deleted it and reposted with another pic. My words remained the same.”
It is more than a bit ironic that Morgan fell for an obviously fake photo when it was just a week ago that he trolled NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo for getting duped by a blatantly obvious deepfake video of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) purportedly delivering a House floor speech denouncing the Sydney Sweeney “good jeans” ad.
“Oh dear @ChrisCuomo – perhaps spend less time b*tching about me and more time trying to spot obvious fakes,” Morgan tweeted at Cuomo alongside several laughing emojis.
“You got me…silly clip i didnt pay attn to….and I wont block you for saying so…see how easy that is, my yappy friend?” Cuomo responded at the time.