White House caught manipulating photo of Black woman protesting ICE

The White House has published a digitally altered photo of a Black woman after her arrest at a protest. The AI-doctored image showed her crying dramatically, when in truth she was perfectly composed. Likewise, the fake photo also made her skin darker.

Worse still, the White House now appears to have admitted to doctoring the image, stating ‘the memes will continue’.

ICE church pastor

Nekima Levy Armstrong, the woman in the photo, was arrested at a protest at a church in St Paul, Minnesota, on 18 January. Armstrong is a lawyer, a noted local activist, and a former leader of the Minneapolis NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

The demonstrators claimed that David Easterwood, one of the church pastors, was also the acting field director for the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. Alongside Armstrong, officers also arrested fellow protesters Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelly.

The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, announced the arrests through social media on 22 January:

Minutes ago at my direction, @HSI_HQ and @FBI agents executed an arrest in Minnesota.

So far, we have arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, who allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

We will share more updates as they…

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) January 22, 2026

Likewise, the White House X account itself tweeted the news, along with the doctored photo and the caption:

ARRESTED

Far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong for orchestrating church riots in Minnesota.

https://t.co/ACPZFX2m3x pic.twitter.com/MyvE9HkSRA

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 22, 2026

Racist, fascist, useless

Fortunately, whilst the US government is viciously racist and authoritarian, it’s also deeply incompetent. Within the same hour, secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem posted the unedited version of the photo:

Homeland Security Investigators and FBI agents arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong who played a key role in orchestrating the Church Riots in St. Paul, Minnesota.

She is being charged with a federal crime under 18 USC 241.

Religious freedom is the bedrock of the United States -… pic.twitter.com/O9yp4nRio1

— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) January 22, 2026

The White House tweet now has a ‘Readers have added context’ warning stating that:

This photo has been digitally altered to make Nekima Levy Armstrong appear to be in distress. The Director of DHS herself posted the unedited photo in an earlier announcement

The Guardian conducted analysis of both images, confirming that one was indeed an altered version of the other. In its reporting, the news site stated that it had:

overlaid the White House photo with the Noem photo and found that the law enforcement agents in both pictures line up exactly, confirming they are the same image. There are other similarities between the photos. An unidentified person can be seen in the same place behind the arresting agent. And the arresting agent’s arm appears to be behind Armstrong’s back in exactly the same position.

Horrifying… and pathetic

When both social media users and the press began to notice that the image was a fake, Kaelan Dorr – the White House deputy comms director – posted:

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.

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. https://t.co/XPGE4PORHL

— Kaelan Dorr (@Kaelan47) January 22, 2026

The absolute fucking horror of this whole display should be perfectly obvious, but let’s go through it anyway, just so we’re clear.

The fact that they darkened Armstrong’s skin in order to deepen the reaction of their racist voter base is blatant colourism.

This is not a ‘meme’. It’s one of the most powerful political entities in the world deliberately spreading lies to further its own ends.

This whole saga is a terrifying microcosm of the new post-truth age, where a cartoonishly evil administration can be caught lying, admit it was lying, and it won’t alter public opinion one iota.

All of that is true, but it’s also just so… pathetic. It’s childish, it’s desperate, it’s trying so fucking hard to provoke a reaction by depicting a Black woman crying when she was perfectly calm.

These fascists know that public opinion has turned against their brutish ICE agenda. They’re clearly scared, but that fear makes them all the more dangerous. It’s protests like that of Armstrong, Allen and Kelly that show them that people won’t be cowed into fear by jackbooted thugs.

Featured image via the Canary