Remember how Donald Trump’s inauguration day in January of 2017 was a super-terrible day? It seems so long ago now. While protesters filled the streets across the world, there was one symbolic image that carried the day—the anemic turnout that was captured and broadcast across the country. Frequently that image was put in juxtaposition with a similar 2009 Barack Obama inauguration photo, in order to show the brutal difference. One of Trump’s first proclamations as president of these United States was that the image we had all seen was a fake. There were thousands and thousands of invisible people at that inauguration, and the lame-stream media, in cahoots with Obama and Clinton’s deep state, were tricking the American public.
Well, according to the Guardian, which received highly redacted documents via a 2017 FOIA request, that was half true. It turns out that “a government photographer” did a little editing of the images of the 2017 inauguration day to make the crowds appear larger. This was after Trump freaked out.
The photographer cropped out empty space “where the crowd ended” for a new set of pictures requested by Trump on the first morning of his presidency, after he was angered by images showing his audience was smaller than Barack Obama’s in 2009.
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The records detail a scramble within the National Park Service (NPS) on 21 January 2017 after an early-morning phone call between Trump and the acting NPS director, Michael Reynolds. They also state that Sean Spicer, then White House press secretary, called NPS officials repeatedly that day in pursuit of the more flattering photographs.
This is in line with reports that Trump was raving about the size of the crowds and already worried that the National Park Service (NPS) was working against him. According to the Guardian, Reynolds, post-conversation with the freshly butt-hurt Trump, wanted images “with more spectators in the crowd” and fewer “empty areas.” The investigation also talks about Sean “Spicey” Spicer’s hands-on approach to his new job as the poor man’s minister of propaganda.
The newly released files said Spicer was closely involved in the effort to obtain more favourable photographs. He called Reynolds immediately after the acting director spoke with Trump and then again at 3pm shortly before the new set of photographs was sent to the White House, investigators heard. Another official reported being called by Spicer.
You might remember that later on that day, Sean Spicer told the press, in front of the world, that “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration—period.”