New Melania Trump photo reignites fake 'double' conspiracy

A photograph taken on October 22, depicting President Donald Trump and the First Lady boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House has gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

In the photo Melania is pictured smiling, wearing sunglasses and a black dress.

The photo has made the rounds online, as many followers of the conspiracy see this as "proof" that the photo wasn't of the "real Melania".

"The only thing I'll miss from this administration is them swapping new Melanias and just pretending we won’t notice like a 4-year-old with a guppy," comedian SNL writer Zack Bornstein.

"I never believed the #FakeMelania conspiracies, but you can tell this 100% isn't her, because she's looking fondly at a Christmas tree in the distance," he added.

Though it appears to be a joke on his part, other commentators were convinced that the photo was not the real First Lady.

The conspiracy, which isn’t the first of its kind, gained traction online.

"I was planning on getting a good night’s sleep but now I’m freaked out by fake Melania OMG," one Twitter user wrote.

The hashtag #FakeMelania began trending on the social networking site.

"#FakeMelania’s got a tell: she’s happy when he’s around," another user joked, and one theory claims that her "double" has different teeth.

The Project host Lisa Wilkinson also jumped on the Fake Melania train.

"For anyone fooled by the fake Melania beaming (that’s a clue right there) from the top of the plane stairs as Trump arrived in Wisconsin a few hours ago, THIS is the real Melania," she tweeted.

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The conspiracy bought some levity to an otherwise sombre election, with less than one week to go before the final showdown.

President Donald Trump cast his vote Saturday in Florida ahead of another punishing day with three campaign rallies as he works to close the gap with Joe Biden and pull off a 2016-style upset win on November 3.

"I voted for a guy named Trump," he said, flashing a smile after removing his black mask upon emerging from a polling station in balmy West Palm Beach, not far from the Mar-a-Lago resort he officially made his home last year.

He became one of nearly 55 million Americans to cast early ballots in a year when the coronavirus has made in-person voting problematic.

"It was a very secure vote. Much more secure than when you send in a ballot, I can tell you that," said Trump, who insists without giving evidence that mail-in voting leads to fraud.

Continuing his frenetic pace, the president was to hop-scotch later in the day from North Carolina to Ohio to Wisconsin - returning to the White House only minutes before midnight - as he works furiously to make up lost ground.

But the president's efforts have been inescapably overshadowed by a grim reality seized on by Biden: the US set a daily record for new Covid-19 cases on Friday, at nearly 83,000, with a further surge expected as cold weather arrives.