Fact Check: Is Tom Hanks bald? Viral tweet image debunked amid alleged claim of leaving the country over Trump

As the U.S. elections edge closer, a claim of Tom Hanks announcing that he will leave the country in case Donald Trump becomes president again has gone viral on X. This comes after the actor endorsed Joe Biden in June after attending the 80th anniversary of D-Day, where the current POTUS gave a speech.

As the aforementioned tweet went viral, many questioned whether the Forrest Gump star had gone bald as a picture of him sporting the hair-do was included in the social media post. However, Hanks is not bald, and the photo is fake.

On September 2, X user @realTrumpNewsX shared a tweet that read:

“BREAKING: Tom Hanks announces he will leave the United States if Donald Trump is elected President in 2024! What’s your reaction?”

The tweet also included two pictures of Tom Hanks, once which showed him wearing a rainbow-colored lapel as he stood in front of what seems to be the U.S. flag and another image where he showed off his bald head.

At the time of writing this article, the tweet had amassed nearly three million views.

One might assume that the actor is now donning a bald head considering the picture was included in a tweet that was posted just yesterday. However, it is far from the truth.

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Tom Hanks has not gone bald

The image of Tom Hanks showing off his bald head that was present in the tweet is a screenshot taken from 2020 in reality. The 68-year-old actor made an appearance on The Graham Norton Show through a video call.

After removing his baseball cap on the show, he revealed that he went bald as he was filming Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic, where he played Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

While showing off his bald head, Tom Hanks said on the show:

“Let me show you the horrible haircut I have to have in order to portray Colonel Tom Parker. Check out this horrible… Do you see that? Look at that thing?”

The actor went on to assure fans that the shaved head was simply for a project and that his health was not at risk. Hanks said:

“Don’t worry now, don’t be afraid. This shaved head was just for a movie and my hair is growing back very slowly. It does save time in the shower, so I don’t know maybe we should all do it huh?”

Meanwhile, Tom Hanks has expressed weariness over Trump’s possible victory in November. While speaking to Christiane Amanpour in a CNN interview in June, Hanks said:

“I think there’s always reason to be worried about the short term. But I look at the long term of what happened.”

The actor had not stated that he would leave the country if Trump became president at the time of writing this article.