Image of Biden in MAGA hat during Trump meeting is AI | Fact check

A Nov. 13 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes an image showing what appears to be President Joe Biden wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat while talking to President-elect Donald Trump. 
“He hasn’t been this happy in years but, Trump told him ‘My house better be clean before I come home,'” the post’s caption reads in part.
Another version of the claim on Instagram was liked more than 8,000 times before it was deleted.  
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This isn’t a real photo of the Biden-Trump meeting. Experts and an AI-detection tool said the image is likely AI-generated. There’s no evidence Biden wore the hat at any point during his November meeting with Trump at the White House.
Biden invited Trump to the White House following his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election. During the nearly two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Nov. 13, Biden pledged a “smooth transition” between their respective administrations, as USA TODAY reported. 
But there’s no evidence Biden wore a MAGA hat at any point during the meeting. His doing so would have made headlines, but there was no mention of any such action in various news reports about the meeting. There are likewise no photos of Biden wearing a MAGA hat during the meeting.
The image has an array of characteristics consistent with AI generation, but most obviously the image shows Trump with a blue striped tie and Biden with a red striped tie. Photos of the meeting show Trump was wearing a red tie and Biden a purple one, and neither had stripes.
The Instagram image is “likely the product of a generative AI system,” said University of Notre Dame engineering professor Walter Scheirer.  
“The MAGA hat Biden is wearing is not well rendered,” he said. “Specifically, the small flag on the side of the hat is not accurate – it lacks the correct number of stripes.”  
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There are other signs the image is “clearly not a real photograph,” said James O’Brien, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley.  
Trump and Biden’s clothing appears “too perfect,” for example, which O’Brien said is “pretty typical of AI images.” Additionally, he said Biden’s teeth, ear and skin are noticeably different in the image than how they appear in legitimate photographs. 
Hive Moderation’s AI-detection tool also found that the image was 99.9% likely to be AI-generated.  
Biden did briefly wear a “Trump 2024” hat as a gesture of unity at a Sept. 11 event.
USA TODAY has debunked an array of AI-generated images of Trump, including ones that show him wading through flood waters after Hurricane Helene, being taken into custody and standing with a group of Black women.  
USA TODAY reached out to users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
Lead Stories and PolitiFact also debunked the claim.  
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