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WASHINGTON – Two images allegedly showing coronavirus-stricken U.S. President Donald Trump working at the hospital throughout the day turned out to have been taken just 10 minutes apart, according to the metadata in the photos.
And one document that he appeared to be signing was apparently a blank sheet of paper.
The findings, which went viral on Twitter under the hashtag #Staged, are the latest examples of misinformation to emerge from the US president’s campaign, adding to his administration’s credibility crisis.
The White House released on Saturday (October 3) photos of Trump who appeared to be working hard while receiving treatment for Covid-19 at the hospital.
One of the images showed Trump in a plain white shirt, sitting at the head of a long table reviewing documents. The other showed him in a dark suit jacket at a round table, writing on a document.
The photos appeared to show the president working in two different locations at two different times of the day. His daughter, Mrs. Ivanka Trump, shared one of the images on Twitter and wrote: “Nothing can stop you from working for the American people. IMMEDIATE!”
But Jon Ostrower, editor-in-chief of aviation news site The Air Current, noted that the data embedded in the images showed that they were taken around the same time.
“The photos released by the WH tonight of the president working at Walter Reed were taken 10 minutes apart at 5:25:39 pm and 5:35:40 pm ET on Saturday, based on Exif data embedded in both AP posts that were shared by the White House tonight, “he tweeted.
White House reporter Andrew Feinberg also tweeted that when zooming in on one of the images, Trump “appears to be signing his name on a blank sheet of paper.”
Both posts quickly went viral on social media, with readers accusing Trump and his administration of organizing the photos.
“We are living the presidency of reality TV,” read a widely shared tweet.
Others raised issues with Trump’s lack of personal protective equipment in the photos.
“It’s really shocking that he still isn’t wearing a mask. I hope his vanity hasn’t caused the photographer to get infected,” wrote another Twitter user.
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