Photo of Trump watching Baghdadi raid was staged: Former White House photographer

A former White House photographer puts into question the shooting time of a photo in which US President Donald Trump and his advisers are said to be monitoring the operation of killing Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Pete Souza, the chief official White House photographer for former presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, tweeted that the photo released by the White House of Trump in the Situation Room alongside US military top brass monitoring the raid did not match up with the reported time of the raid.

Souza, an outspoken critic of Trump, said the timestamp showed it was taken at 17.05 on Saturday – more than 90 minutes after the 3.30 p.m. raid reportedly happened.

There were also tabloids claiming that the US president was golfing at the time of the operation and that he returned to the White House at 3.33 p.m.

Some others suggested that the photo was released to be compared with the photograph of Obama intently watching the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Souza also said it was possible that the operation continued through the time the photo was taken. 

“It’s entirely possible that the raid was still going on at 5:05 p.m. Before drawing definite conclusions about the photo, reporters need to nail down the actual timeline of the raid.”