Trump made a government photographer doctor his inauguration photos to make his crowd look bigger than what it was.
The Guardian got the documents from an FOIA request and reported:
A government photographer edited official pictures of Donald Trump’s inauguration to make the crowd appear bigger following a personal intervention from the president, according to newly released documents. 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.
Trump used presidential power to lie and mislead the American people
The doctored photos matter because they show that Trump’s abuse of presidential power began almost as soon as he walked through the White House door as president. Trump complains about fake news, but his presidency has been a ceaseless effort to lie to the American people and create false narratives of success to hide this administration’s consistent and unending failures.
Trump isn’t afraid to use presidential power to doctor photographic evidence, so it stands to reason that he also wouldn’t fear using presidential power to cover up his crimes. Trump is a criminal who has used the presidency for his crimes. The doctored photos show that Trump is indeed petty, but more importantly that he is fundamentally corrupt and has no issues with corrupting the presidency or misleading an entire country to further his own aims.
The doctored photos will go down in history as the first act of a criminally corrupt president who was destined for disgrace from the moment that he was sworn into office.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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