CNN host Erin Burnett fact-checked a post shared by President Donald Trump, noting that an image showing a military attack on Iran was an altered photo that had been taken last year.
The president seemed to imply the pictured attack had just happened after extensive airstrikes between the U.S. and Iran.
“This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, sharing an image of a bombing posted by X account Open Source Intel, a website that says it reports from “verified footage, satellite imagery, official statements, field dispatches, and on-the-ground sources.”
The image Trump shared actually depicts an Israeli attack on an oil depot in Tehran on June 15, 2025.
Burnett exposed the president’s post on Wednesday night’s airing of CNN’s “OutFront.”
“Well, this is confusing, right? ’Cause he says that this image is in retribution for yesterday, but we can tell you that that image is actually an altered image from what appears to be an Israeli strike in June of last year,” Burnett said. “So there’s a lot of confusion about what’s being posted and the accuracy.”
Watch Burnett debunk Trump’s post below:
Open Source Intel admitted the image of the strike was inaccurately attributed to this week’s attack.
“Our mistake…caught and corrected. We post hundreds of times a day in real time. We’ll occasionally get one wrong,” the account wrote. “Unfortunately it was widely shared before we had the chance to make the correction. What matters is what happens next: we own it, we fix it, we move on.
“It’s a big lesson for us in responsibility that we will certainly learn and grow from. That cannot be overstated,” the post continued.
Burnett was not the only person who called the president out for sharing an image of the airstrike. Many online ridiculed Trump over his post.
“The White House – supported by probably the greatest intelligence community on earth – literally putting out fake news,” Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute, said on X.