Photo via The Independent

America.gov is filled with stock art of people not in America

Read the original at The Independent ↗
Cite

Scott, O. (2026, October 1). America.gov is filled with stock art of people not in America. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-website-stock-photos-not-america-b3059813.html

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

The Independent · collected 2026-10-01 · by Owen Scott

Quick Summary

No summary of this article yet; the story summary below covers the event.

AI analysis

Story summary

The Trump administration's newly launched America.gov website includes several images that were actually taken outside of the United States, according to an analysis by The Daily Beast. Launched at the end of September, the platform offers users access to government information through a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. President Trump praised this initiative as "one of the most revolutionary product launches of all time." However, out of 11 stock pictures on the website, at least six were taken internationally—locations include Beijing, China, and Vigo and Madrid, Spain. This discrepancy highlights potential issues with the site's content accuracy and raises questions about its credibility in representing American life accurately.

Written for “Misleading Stock Photos USA Site” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Misleading Stock Photos USA Site
Politics · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 12% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Fox News
Hedges 2 of 18 claims Outlet record 69/100
“Article A describes the unveiling and launch of America.gov by President Trump on September 29, while Article B reports an issue with the website's images a few days later.”
Dawn
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 0 of 13 claims Outlet record 72/100
“Article A describes the unveiling and introduction of America.gov, while Article B reports on an issue with images on the website that occurred later.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
24
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
12%
3 of 24 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
59/100
The Independent's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-01 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Independent · 3553 article(s) · 9 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 9 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Owen Scott
86 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Days away from the midterm elections, President Trump posted a surreal picture of his face side-by-side with Elvis Presley and claimed he would have won the Vietnam War.
🔮 All nine people onboard the Learjet 60 died when it nose-dived on Sunday and exploded into a fireball near Cresthaven - around nine miles from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. “We’re descending 8,000 - mayday, mayday,” the pilot radioed in audio obtained by Sky News.
🔮 In her motion, Hutt suggested that the pause would be effective for 45 days but could even be extended for a year.
🔮 “Seeing a passenger jet flying low overhead here would be quite a bad sign!
🔮 Hinton added: “The fact that I couldn’t wake up this morning to my baby, it really tore me up.”
🔮 Trump has previously stated that he will accept the midterm results, under one condition.
🔮 “She came up to me and my coworker, Elijah, with a stroller,” assistant manager Jarayya Mayes told Fox 5 Atlanta.
🔮 William “Stone” Romberg, a beach hospitality manager who worked in Florida’s panhandle, was killed on Sunday as he swam out to untangle the bird from his lure after casting it near an inlet in the Panama City Beach area.
🔮 President Donald Trump has warned a federal judge that he will hold her personally responsible if anyone dies on a “highly dangerous” golf course he wants renovated.
🔮 Currently, the GOP controls both the House and the Senate, but some polls have shown that the Democratic Party could flip the balance of power in Congress.
Also by Owen Scott
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 86 articles by Owen Scott →

Topics

America.gov Independent Spain The Daily Beast U.S.

Subjects

Trump PERSON · 9× America.gov ORG · 3× The Daily Beast ORG · 3× U.S. GPE · 3× America GPE · 2× British Columbia GPE · 2× Canada GPE · 2× Independent ORG · 2× Spain GPE · 2× the National Design Studio ORG · 2×

Narrative

A fourth picture, showing a young person jumping into a lake, was taken at Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, Canada - another country whose government has an increasingly difficult relationship with the Trump administration.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-01
🔮 Trump has long criticized the European country’s government, even once suggesting that the U.S. could cancel all trade with Spain.
2026-10-01 · The Independent
America.gov is filled with stock art of people not in America · assertive framing

Claims (24 extracted, 3 hedged)

The Trump administration’s brand new America.gov website has multiple images taken outside the country, according to a report. uncertain
website → have → report
Launched at the end of September, the website offers users access to government information via a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. asserted
website → launch → intelligence
President Trump has lauded the platform, even describing its launch as “one of the most revolutionary product launches of all time.” asserted
Trump → laud → time
However, an analysis carried out by The Daily Beast found that at least six out of the 11 stock pictures used on the webpage were actually taken outside of the country. asserted
pictures → carry → country
One of the images, an image showing a mother and daughter looking at a tablet, was taken as far afield as Beijing - the capital of China, the U.S.’s major rival in the A.I. race. asserted
mother → show → race
Another showed a young couple, one of whom can be seen beaming at the camera. asserted
one → show → camera
That image was taken in the Spanish city of Vigo. asserted
image → take → Vigo
A second picture was taken in Spain, this time in Madrid. asserted
picture → take → Madrid
The image shows a child looking out of a window at commercial jets. asserted
child → show → jets
Trump has long criticized the European country’s government, even once suggesting that the U.S. could cancel all trade with Spain. uncertain
U.S. → criticize → Spain
A fourth picture, showing a young person jumping into a lake, was taken at Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, Canada - another country whose government has an increasingly difficult relationship with the Trump administration. asserted
government → show → administration
A fifth picture was taken in Poland, with a sixth being captured in Estonia, The Daily Beast discovered. asserted
Beast → take → Estonia
At Tuesday’s National Design Studio launch event for the new tool, Trump heaped praise onto the platform, which he claimed was “not simply a website.” asserted
he → heap → platform
“It’s a restoration of America’s founding promise,” he declared. asserted
he → ’ → promise
“And it’s a reinvention of your government for the 21st Century and beyond.” asserted
it → ’ → Century
Despite that, even the business through which the six pictures were sourced is based outside of America. asserted
pictures → source → America
The images are registered on a website named Stocksy, which is in British Columbia, Canada, The Daily Beast revealed. asserted
Beast → register → Columbia
The Independent has contacted the National Design Studio over the use of the stock photos. asserted
Independent → contact → photos
During the launch event, Trump praised Joe Gebbia, the founder of Airbnb and the architect of America.gov. asserted
Trump → praise → America.gov
Gebbia leads the National Design Studio as the U.S.’s first chief design officer. asserted
Gebbia → lead → officer
Trump also revealed that 20-year-old Edward Coristine, better known as “Big Balls” while working for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, was the lead engineer on the project. asserted
Coristine → reveal → project
The website made headlines earlier in the week after it declared that former President Biden was the winner of the 2020 election, despite Trump’s claims to the contrary. uncertain
Biden → make → contrary
The launch of America.gov on Tuesday also came just days after Trump hosted Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, for a private dinner at the White House on Sunday. asserted
Trump → come → Sunday
In recent weeks, Amodei has warned of the need for greater regulations to be imposed on the development of A.I. asserted
regulations → warn → A.I.
💬Give feedback
🕘History 🎫Support