A change in John Fetterman’s appearance, which has seen the Pennsylvania senator shave his trademark beard and grow a moustache, has sparked a wild conspiracy theory online that he may have been replaced with a double.
The claim has been made by a number of Donald Trump-supporting influencers, with one claiming it proves the American government “uses doubles.”
In November 2022, Fetterman was elected as a Democratic senator, defeating Trump-endorsed Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz in a tightly fought contest, which helped the Democrats maintain control of the upper chamber.
On Saturday Fetterman posted a photograph on X, formerly Twitter, showing he had removed his iconic goatee beard, and grown a spruce moustache. In reference to his 13-year-old son, he wrote: “Lost a bet with Karl” followed by the “disgusted face” emoji. The post was widely shared, receiving over 950 reposts and 1.9 million views.
Later the same day Gisele Barreto Fetterman, the senator’s wife, posted a photo of the couple with the caption: “Date night (ps. I never knew he had a chin.”
Asked what the bet had been about she replied: “Chess, always chess.”
However, online influencer Stew Peters took a different view. He shared the new photo of Fetterman, wearing a plain shirt and glasses, alongside an older one of him in a suit with his beard. He wrote: “The guy pretending to be John Fetterman looks nothing like the real John Fetterman. Ears clearly don’t match.”
Jack Danger, a self-styled “Twitter influencer” and part of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, shared the same side-by-side comparison, commenting: “For those of you who still don’t believe the U.S. government uses ‘doubles’ despite all the evidence of Joe Biden & others, & for those of you who are on the fence, I give you actual evidence. They are trying to pass this person off as John Fetterman. Look at the ears.”
A third X account, with more than 34,000 followers, posted side-by-side shots of Fetterman along with President Biden, actor Jamie Foxx and philanthropist Melinda Gates. He wrote: “Just a few examples of how they are using doubles to fool the masses.”
Hi-Rez, a Trump-supporting rapper with 137,000 X followers, shared a video of a man claiming he had uploaded two photos to a “biometric scanning website,” from before and after he grew the moustache, showing only a 39 percent match. He added: “John Fetterman is a clone,” followed by a tears of joy emoji.]"
No other “evidence” has been presented to support the wild claims.
Gisele hit back at the conspiracy claims, commenting: “Thinking there may be something to the body double rumors … suddenly ‘John’ is closing kitchen cabinet doors. WHO IS HE,” alongside an eyes emoji.
When I was four years old, my dad shaved his mustache, and I swear to God I thought it was a stranger who came out of the bathroom and I ran away screaming.
I think that sums up the cognitive state of these particular conspiracists.
Lol. My dad shaved his beard when my sister was a toddler. She flew into hysterics. He hasn’t shaved his beard since. That was almost 40 years ago.
My dad changed his shirt because he got wet and I saw him walking outside with another shirt on without knowing about the first one. I thought he was a clone for half a day until he asked me what’s wrong. That was a good laugh for him.
I shaved my beard one time and my girlfriend dumped me. Some women apparently don’t get over that even into their 40’s.
(In her case it was because apparently I “looked too young” but the overall gist is the same.)
I shaved my beard when my daughter was a baby and I stuck my face in front of her. Her face looked all screwed up and confused for about 20 seconds, then she realized it was me and gave me a huge smile. It’s something I’ll never forget.
Did your dad work for govment?
Yoooo that comment from his wife Gisele though
“Gisele hit back at the conspiracy claims, commenting: “Thinking there may be something to the body double rumors … suddenly ‘John’ is closing kitchen cabinet doors. WHO IS HE,” alongside an eyes emoji.”
They seem extremely good at social media.
Of course: facial hair is the hardest part of the face to alter, so they gave up and hoped no one would notice.
What other explanation could there possibly be for a beard just disappearing overnight???
These people are super smart.
I’ve had a beard for a decade. I don’t understand how it would just go away. Clearly a beard disappearing could only be from a conspiracy theory
Since every accusation is a confession, I now expect Trump to send a body double to his booking on Thursday. But instead of an identical one, he’ll send one who is taller and thinner, because he thinks no one will notice (and it can make his reported height and weight better)
There was for sure a second Melania. They didn’t even look alike. The fake one was prettier.
I just googled it, and found a vox article where they portrayed thinking Melania used a body double as being equal to flat earthers.
I really hate this tendency to pretend all conspiracy theories are the same.
This one makes sense - they didn’t seem to have the happiest time together, the base wanted to see them together, this is an easy fix where everybody’s happy. She didn’t have a reason to be there and could have spent time with the kid instead, you could even argue it would be morally better.
I have no idea if they used a double - probably not - but it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to speculate in. It’s not crazy, it doesn’t require a huge cover up, and it would make sense.
If you can’t even speculate in this without being labelled as crazy, good luck ever uncovering anything that wasn’t meant to see the light of day.
I’ve read that article and agree. They make it out as if it’s a crazy conspiracy. I really think it’s pretty reasonable to think it happened. But either way I at least acknowledge it could be wrong.
And his legion of fans accept it’s him and get mad at anyone who says it isn’t.
Conservatives creating conspiracy theories? NO WAY!
His stache looks great! I hope he keeps it.
I don’t know… he kind of has a high school teacher vibe to him with the mustache. He looked like an old alt rocker with the goatee.
It may be just me , but if I were getting a body double, I think I would probably make sure he had the same facial hair, not something radically different.
If they were able to think critically, they wouldn’t be Trump supporters.
I don’t want to start any wild rumors but Senator Fetterman is clearly a downed UAP pilot just trying to make his way in this crazy world.
“UAP“…Google yields no useful results…help me
It’s what they used to call UFOs. It stands for ‘unidentified aerial phenomenon.’
This is a story about mental illness.
You’d think with all the meds floating around in this country at least SOME of the crazy would be toned-down just a notch…
The real evidence that he’s not really Fetterman is that he’s wearing a suit and not a Pennsylvania tuxedo
What a dumb thing to make a conspiracy theory about. Typical for the qanon right.
Quality reporting.
In reference to his 13-year-old son, he wrote: “Lost a bet with Karl” followed by the “disgusted face” emoji.
It’s obviously “disguised face”, not disgusted.
They got this wrong too - the emoji is the glasses and mustache one.
Wait 'til Stew Peters finds out about focal length, it would do wonders to fix his hobbit-looking ass.
Just makes me respect him more. One can only pull off a mustache when combined with confidence. Go Fetterman.
Honestly he looks sharp with the mustache and glasses, obviously lighting plays a role too but it definitely looks good on him
