Was Donald Trump’s Baghdadi raid photo staged?

Donald Trump is facing accusations that a photograph of him watching the raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was staged.

The White House yesterday shared an image of the president and his group of top advisers monitoring the raid from the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing.

Trump claimed the Isis leader “died like a dog” following the special forces raid on a safe house in northwest Syria on Saturday, adding that “the world is now a much safer place”.

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However, a tweet from Pete Souza, who was chief official White House photographer during Barack Obama’s presidency, has prompted critics to question the authenticity of Trump’s photograph.

Souza pointed out that the raid “as reported” took place at 3.30pm Washington time, but the camera data showed the photo was taken at 5.05pm.

Others are comparing the picture to that of then president Obama watching the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Newsweek notes that the Trump photograph is “far more symmetrical and organised than the Obama White House Situation Room picture taken during the bin Laden compound raid”. The news site adds: “Clinton can be seen holding her mouth in shock and Defence Secretary Robert Gates is crossing his arms in front of a jumble of administration officials and generals who are standing behind them.”

Some commentators claim that a Trump golf outing tracker showed the president was golfing at 3.33pm, as the raid was happening.

However, Souza later tweeted to say: “Just to be clear, I didn’t say it was staged. Trump himself said he didn’t arrive to the Situation Room until ‘around 5pm’. So it’s definitely possible the photo was taken during the raid.”

Fact-checking site Snopes adds that the staged-photo claims were based on the premise that the raid had concluded by 3.30pm, but this “doesn’t appear to be the case”. Reports from the New Yorker and AP suggest it was more likely between 5pm and 6pm, Snopes adds.

Souza also clarified that the latest reporting from The New York Times suggested the helicopters left Iraq at 5pm Washington time on a 70-minute flight to Syria, so the actual raid was more likely to have taken place after 6.10pm.

Snopes concludes: “Whether the photograph was ‘staged’ in the sense that its subjects were allegedly posing for the camera rather than being captured naturally and candidly is not something that can be determined from metadata and timing of events.”