Newsweek fact checks ‘Deez Nuts’ painting of Trump, Elon, RFK: ‘Time to close up shop. You’ll never live this down’

Newsweek was mocked after their response to a viral post involving the president-elect and a gag prediction that had social media suggesting, “Time to close up shop. You’ll never live this down.”

After attending UFC 309 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, President-elect Donald Trump was snapped gathering around some McDonald’s meals with Donald Trump Jr., Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). While the Internet had more than enough fun at the expense of Kennedy’s expression and his aim to “make America healthy again,” Newsweek supersized the hilarity when they chose to fact-check an AI-assisted “deez nutz” joke.

The X user @boneGPT posted a side-by-side of the McDonald’s meal aboard Trump Force One and a similar image described as a “1721 painting by Deitz Nuützen” that quickly racked up over 5 million views by Wednesday morning and prompted the outlet to run an article titled, “Fact Check: Did Deitz Nuutzen Painting Predict Trump Dinner With RFK Jr?”

Within the post that described how the images featured near identical poses and expressions, Newsweek explained that Google searches came up empty for proof of the existence of “Deitz Nuützen” prior to the image on X and a reverse image search provided no results for the “painting.”

It was also detailed how @boneGPT linked to a YouTube channel that posts videos featuring AI before it was noted, “Deitz Nuützen is a homophone of ‘Deez Nutz,’ an Internet slang term for testicles (these nuts). The meme has its origins in rapper Dr. Dre’s 1992 album The Chronic. It has a track called ‘Deeez Nuuuts’ in which rapper Warren G tells a joke to a woman on the phone, the punchline of which is ‘deez nuts.'”

The inclusion had some suspecting it was “hastily added to the article before (0r after) publishing,” as Newsweek did acknowledge an update had been made to the article some 16 hours after it went live.

Still, it maintained a rating assertion of “False,” and stated, “The painting is almost certainly an artificially generated image created by @boneGPT. There is no evidence of an 18th-century painter called Deitz Nuützen nor any evidence that the alleged painting existed before Monday. This appears to be a ‘deez nutz’ joke. That did not stop some outlets believing what they saw to be true. Indian news website The New Indian published an article Tuesday titled ‘Old painting resembling Trump, Elon, RFK in-flight meal sparks viral frenzy.’ The outlet repeated @boneGPT’s claim that it was a real painting by artist Deitz Nuützen. The article wrote that ‘the resemblance is purely coincidental.'”

While Musk was among those finding humor in the original post, reacting with a laughing emoji, more laughs were directed at Newsweek for the “fact-check” as the X account Courage Is A Habit suggested, “RIP @Newsweek…Time to close up shop. You’ll never live this down.”

Kevin Haggerty

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