Former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia has been mocked after posting what appeared to be edited images of herself and her family in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump.
Zacharia was ousted after just five days in the job last week following an awkward debut in the James S Brady briefing room that lasted only 14 minutes and after questions emerged about her legal training.
After being axed Friday, she took to social media to pay tribute to Trump as a “kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man” whom “it was an honor to work for.”
The picture attached to the X post showed Zacharia stood next to the president, who is sat smiling behind the Resolute Desk. Hours later, the former press secretary posted a second image of herself with Trump, this time accompanied by her family albeit with the children’s faces blurred out.
Social media users soon pointed out that Trump looks identical in both pictures; sporting the same grin, and with hands and fingers appearing to be placed in the same positions. The chair behind him, however, appears to slightly shift between the two images.
“Both are the same picture of Trump,” X user Adree commented, with a split image showing both pictures side by side. “Did you add yourself and your family there?”
Other comments went on to suggest the pictures may have been altered using photoshop or AI. The Washington Post also claimed “digital traces” showed the second image had been modified, in a report that focussed on items on Trump’s desk.
A D.C. campaign group highlighted the apparent anomaly between the two pictures; the first appears to show a blurred out map on top of a stack of blue books to Trump’s right but in the family shot it’s missing altogether.
The group claims the map depicts East Potomac Park, where Trump is currently involved in a lawsuit about his plans to alter its federally-owned golf course, which has already seen the National Parks Service admonished by District Judge Ana C Reyes for tearing up trees.
“FYI to anyone paying attention – that blurred out map on the PRESIDENT’S DESK is East Potomac Park,” Save East Po alleged on X, reposting Zacharia’s tweet.
Alex Rosen, that group’s founder, told The Washington Post he was confident the course is the subject of the map, saying: “It’s a distinctive shape. When you look at that photo, it is very clear that you can draw comparisons between that and what the peninsula looks like.
“I’ve spent a ton of time looking at that photo. That silhouette looks pretty damning, and it looks almost identical to what East Potomac looks like.”
The detail is potentially significant because a key point of contention in the court case is how far along the administration is in its planning for the project. The Trump administration has insisted it has no final design ready for the course and that the tree removal is unrelated.
“Nothing says ‘we have no plan’ like a photo of plan-shaped map on the President’s desk, followed by a second photo where that map has been digitally removed,” Save East Po wrote in a follow-up tweet, alleging that the map indicated the administration was much further along in its planning than it had previously admitted.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung responded in a statement by accusing the Post of “breathlessly obsessing over an innocuous photo” because of its “severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome” while Zacharia herself told the newspaper in a text message: “Only The Washington Post would turn a very sweet picture into something controversial.”
The Independent has also reached out to the Trump administration for comment.
Trump announced Zacharia as Karoline Leavitt’s successor in a message on Truth Social on Friday October 9 after being impressed with her appearances as a pundit on conservative media speaking out in his defense.
He reportedly made the decision without consulting White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who had been attempting to convince CNN’s conservative commentator Scott Jennings to take the post.
Zacharia’s opening press conference saw her struggle to read out a prepared statement, take only three questions from reporters and accidentally refer to her husband as “my president”.
Questions then began to arise about whether or not she had the legal experience she claimed and whether or not she had passed the bar exam. She had not, it transpired, prompting Trump to call time on her tenure after barely a week.
Only his former communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, has had a shorter career as part of his administration – which was still twice as long as Zacharia’s.
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