Rumours circulating social media claim that an old photograph at Eric Trump’s sixth birthday party in 1990 depicts both Lev Parnas and Donald Trump pictured together.
Variants of the rumour claim that the photo was taken at a party for one of Lev Parnas’s children.
Lev Parnas is an American businessman who allegedly worked with President Donald Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani to help pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rival Joe Biden, claims that later formed the basis of President Trump’s impeachment in 2019. Despite the claims made by Parnas, President Trump has claimed that he does not know him.
Since Trump purported not to know Parnas, a number of photos depicting Parnas and Trump, as well as other members of the Trump family, have surfaced online. While many of these photos are genuine, those looking to further tie Parnas and Trump together have used a 30 year old photo to strengthen their case that Trump and Parnas must be well acquainted.
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That 30 year old photo purports to show Parnas and Trump in the same room during Eric Trump’s sixth birthday party.
The photo itself is genuine, and definitely shows Eric Trump’s sixth birthday party. A quick reverse image search reveals that the photo was produced by Donald Trump’s then-wife Ivana Trump who was promoting her new memoir, Raising Trump. The original photo is below.
However, because the photo was taken in 1990, it appears impossible for the man in the photo to be Lev Parnas, since he was born in 1972, making him only 18 when the photo was taken (by contrast, Donald Trump would have been 44 when the photo was taken.) It is clear that the man in the photo is significantly older than 18.
Those spreading the rumours that assert the man in the photo is Lev Parnas do not substantiate their claims, and instead rest solely on an assumed passing resemblance to the man in the photo and a younger Lev Parnas (even though no younger photos of Parnas accompany the claims.)
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Even Parnas himself, who purports to know Donald Trump, only claims to know him personally through working with him on the 2016 presidential campaign, and has never claimed to have any sort of significant relationship with the president pre-dating that.
As such, there is nothing to support the notion that the man in the photo is Lev Parnas, and we rank the claim false.
Variants of the rumour that claim the photo was taken at a birthday party for one of Lev Parnas’ children are demonstrably false since we have already established the party was for Eric Trump.