WASHINGTON — A photo circulating on social media has been altered to make it look like rappers Ice Cube and 50 Cent were wearing hats in support of President Donald Trump.
The altered image was shared thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter, fueled in part by a tweet by Eric Trump, who tweeted the image Tuesday, then later deleted it.
In his now-deleted tweet, which got more than 20,000 likes, Eric Trump shared the manipulated photo and commented “Two great, courageous Americans," the Associated Press reported.
In the original photo, both entertainers were wearing baseball caps with sports logos. Ice Cube’s hat says “Big3,” a reference to a 3-on-3 basketball league he co-founded, and 50 Cent wears one with the New York Yankees logo. Ice Cube shared the original photo on his Twitter account on July 6 to send a birthday message to 50 Cent.
As Eric Trump's tweet gained traction Tuesday, Ice Cube called the president's son out for sharing the edited image.
Both Ice Cube and 50 Cent have made headlines in recent days related to the presidential election.
50 Cent -- whose given name is Curtis Jackson -- said this week that he's supporting Trump because of Biden's tax plan targeting wealthy Americans.
Meanwhile, Ice Cube faced criticism for working with the Trump administration on their "Contract with Black America" project. He later clarified that he hasn't endorsed either campaign.
Ice Cube explained on CNN that "Whoever is in power I am going to work with."
Before Eric Trump deleted the photo, Twitter had added a "manipulated media" tag to it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
