Prime Minister Robert Abela’s recent meeting with Donald Trump has taken an unexpected turn, after the internet began questioning whether several world leaders had actually met the US president or posed beside a cardboard cutout.Abela recently shared a photograph of himself, wife Lydia and daughter Giorgia Mae alongside Trump during his trip to New York for the UN General Assembly.“This year I once again had the opportunity to meet US President Donald Trump,” Abela wrote, saying the encounter would help strengthen Malta-US relations. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lovin Malta (@lovinmalta)But social media users soon began comparing his photo with those published by leaders including Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić, Albania’s Edi Rama and Kosovo’s Albin Kurti.Same smile. Same thumbs-up. Almost exactly the same Trump pose.The comparisons gave birth to the bizarre “Cardboard Trump” conspiracy theory, with an image appearing to show one leader standing beside an unmistakably flat version of the US president adding fuel to the speculation.However, a source close to the Prime Minister has since debunked the theory to Lovin Malta, confirming that the photo was taken with the actual president. Lovin Malta also found the cardboard photo is marked as being AI generated across multiple websites. Romania’s Presidential Administration has also rejected the theory, saying its president was photographed with the real Trump by the official White House photographer.So no, it appears Abela did not travel to New York to conduct diplomacy with a piece of cardboard, but for a brief moment, the internet certainly thought he might have.Did the photos have you fooled?•