MUMBAI (Diya TV) — When a billboard featuring President-elect Donald Trump popped up in Mumbai, the internet went on investigation for a reason. Reddit and Snopes dismissed the image as a fraud when it went viral in December.
Turns out, they were wrong.
The billboard, and the image, are in fact true. “There is only one way to live,” the billboard reads, with the U.S. President-elect smiling down on Mumbai’s scene of poverty from his decorated room. “The Trump way.” The image is so true, in fact, that photographer Paul Needham told the Huffington Post that “the image is neither doctored nor edited in any way.”
Needham is the co-founder of SimpaNetworks, a company that assists small business owners and farmers in India install and use power systems. He said he first came across the billboard while commuting across Mumbai for a meeting with some business investors.
“I was inspired to take the photo because of the jarring juxtaposition of the Trump billboard and the poverty and homelessness down below,” he told the Post. “The text on the billboard struck me as particularly naive and offensive.”
He first shared the photo in August 2014, then again in December, when it went viral.
“Business, done right, can create lasting social value,” he said. “I saw Trump towering over the homeless, the children sleeping on cardboard on the street, and I was reminded of the ways in which our economic system can be painfully exclusive and unfair.”
