Altered photo of Hulk Hogan surges following wrestler's death
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Screenshot from Threads taken July 28, 2025
The post shares an image that depicts Hogan -- whose real name was Terry Bollea -- sporting his signature handlebar mustache as he brandishes an American flag in front of a large crowd of migrants packed into a fenced-off area of a building.
The picture has circulated since at least early July but took off on Threads and other platforms, such as Facebook and X, after World Wrestling Entertainment announced July 24 that the bleach-blond, mahogany-tanned sports star had died at age 71. Police said emergency personnel responded to a cardiac arrest call at his residence.
Many posts condemned Hogan or called his death "karma."
The pop culture icon, who made professional wrestling a global phenomenon, loudly supported Trump for president in 2024, endorsing his longtime friend with a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention in which he tore off his shirt to reveal a Trump tank top.
The image depicting him gleefully posing in front of migrants detained under Trump's presidency, however, is fake.
Reverse image searches reveal the picture is a composite of two unrelated photos snapped years before his death.
The first, a portrait of Hogan, was captured by photographer Luis Santana for a Tampa Bay Times interview in 2014 (archived here and here). Santana reshared the shot to his Instagram following Hogan's death (archived here).
The second shows migrant US border facility in McAllen, Texas in 2019 (archived here).
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This image released in a July 2, 2019 report by the US Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Office shows migrant families overcrowding a Border Patrol facility on June 10, 2019 in McAllen, Texas (DHS/ Office of the Inspector General)
The photo does not show the $450 million detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," which is surrounded by swamps inhabited by alligators and snakes and has previously been the subject of other false claims.
AFP has debunked additional misinformation about US politics here.
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