A photo shared online in September 2024 authentically showed Sean “Diddy” Combs posing next to Barack Obama.
Why no truth rating on this claim? While the available evidence suggests the photograph in question is very likely authentic, Snopes has not yet been able to verify directly with the parties involved. We will update this fact check should more evidence become available.
In mid-September 2024, a photograph resurfaced on social media allegedly showing former U.S. President Barack Obama posing next to Sean “Diddy” Combs. The music mogul and rapper was arrested on Sept. 16, 2024, on suspicion of sex trafficking, racketeering, and other charges.
“Just Obama hanging out with his friend Diddy! Oh also Diddy was just charged with s*x trafficking,” read one X post with more than 627,000 views as of this writing.
Just Obama hanging out with his friend Diddy!
Oh also Diddy was just charged with s*x trafficking pic.twitter.com/csuj9nRcRK
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 18, 2024
The image also spread online in May 2024, with one X user captioning the picture: “Obama needs to repent, too. He brought the demonic minstrel show to the Oval Office. It’s not just Diddy.”
The photograph gained particular attention in late March 2024, when federal agents executed search warrants and raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation.
“The media doesn’t want you to see this, so you know what to do,” one X user claimed at the time. Google reverse-image search results showed it spread on multiple social media platforms, such as Instagram, 9GAG, TikTok, Facebook, and X. “Here is President Obama throwing his support behind a pedophile,” another X post read.
However, contrary to what social media users suggested, the photo itself did not indicate any involvement in, or connection to, the specific controversies facing Combs on Obama’s part. Social media users also underscored that the rapper had been photographed with various other prominent figures, including former President Donald Trump.
In short, despite the widespread circulation of the photograph, there were no reliable sources confirming or denying its authenticity. However, the existence of previous photos of Combs and Obama together, as well as the rapper’s support for Obama’s presidency, suggested the image could be authentic. But until a credible source for the picture is found, the research for this article will continue.
Snopes contacted the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama and the Obama Foundation for a comment in May 2024. We will update this article if or when we receive a response, or if new information about the photograph comes to light.
Combs did share a photo with Obama in September 2017, in which the two were dressed in outfits resembling those seen in the image in question. The photograph was posted on Combs’ Facebook page with the caption: “This week was a great week. Shout out to the king Barack Obama!!! #BlackExcellence.”
(Diddy / Facebook)
However, Barack Obama Presidential Library, a federal agency administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, said via email they “don’t have any information on this photo because President Obama was a private citizen then.”
Combs once interviewed Obama in 2004 — when the latter was running for Senate — to encourage young people to vote.
“I think we are probably responsible for Obama being in office, yes. If nobody else is gonna say it, then I’m gonna say it. The confidence, the swagger we instilled in our communities made that possible,” Combs said in an 2009 interview with Playboy Magazine. “If God said I could pick one person to be my father, I’d want to be Sean Combs Obama. That’s how dope he is. I hope he reads this interview and adopts me,” he jokingly added.