Along with incessantly bashing former President Donald Trump, one of the left's favorite pastimes is casting aspersions against members of his family, particularly his wife and youngest son, former first lady Melania and former first son Barron.

The latest contrived controversy on social media, which warranted a fact-check from Snopes, involves a photo from several years ago in which Barron is taking a picture of Melania while appearing to sit on her lap.

Amid all of the negative commentary and scandalous suppositions about the mother-son relationship was a speculative debate about whether the photo was real or a product generated by artificial intelligence, but the fact-checking site swiftly determined the authenticity of the picture.

Old photo of Melania and Barron goes viral

A recent viral post on Reddit was captioned "Melania and Barron Trump in a very, very weird photo session," and featured the purportedly controversial picture of the former first lady and first son in their palatial Trump Tower apartment.

In the photo, Melania is leaning back on a couch while a young Barron is perched on her knees and facing her while taking pictures with a small camera.

That same photo had previously gone viral on the X platform when it was posted there in March, and in both instances elicited ample critical commentary from users who despise the former president and, apparently, other members of his family.

“Hang on, Mom, I’ll take this picture of you and then Dad and I are going to the park to toss the football around and bond.” pic.twitter.com/qrz3EAmYT5

— 𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖_𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 (@SundaeDivine) March 20, 2024

Professional photo shoot during 2016 campaign

As noted, the photo of Barron taking pictures of Melania while on her lap sparked a debate over whether it was real or AI-generated -- a debate that was quickly settled by Snopes' determination that the photo was legitimate.

It was one of around 50 photos licensed by Getty Images that were taken by professional photographer Regine Mahaux during a January 2016 photo shoot at Trump Tower in New York City, when the future first son was just 9 years old.

That particular photo was captioned: "Barron Trump is using the new FUJIFILM instax mini 90 as he and Melania Trump are photographed at Trump Tower on January 6, 2016 in New York City."

The full gallery of photos from that shoot features other pictures of the mother and son in different poses, as well as numerous pics of the son with his father, the boy with both of his parents, along with some of Donald and Melania together and the future president and first lady solo.

In the full context of the professional photo shoot during Trump's 2016 run for the presidency, there is nothing scandalous or untoward about any of the pictures that were clearly staged by the photographer for maximum effect.

Attacking Trump's family for sport

For the past eight years, it has been a veritable sport for the anti-Trump left to viciously attack the former president and members of his family, especially his wife and youngest son, with biting critiques and scandalous innuendos.

Unfortunately, that will almost certainly continue through November's election and, if Trump wins re-election, for at least the next four years, with the only difference now being that Barron is an adult -- which will likely open him up to even more attacks as he no longer has the thin veneer of childhood to render him off-limits.