Photographs of Donald Trump's inauguration were edited to make the crowds look larger after an intervention from the president, according to newly-released documents. Photos were edited by a government photographer, after Mr Trump complained about initial images indicating his crowd was smaller than that of predecessor Barack Obama's first swearing-in. The documents were obtained by The Guardian through a Freedom of Information Act request to the inspector general of the US Interior Department and appeared to confirm previous reports about calls the president made his first day in office. Recommended Justice Department drops charges against 129 inauguration protesters Mr Trump reportedly shared an "early-morning" phone call in January 2017 with Michael Reynolds, the acting director of the National Park Service (NPS), to complain about the photographs he had seen from the government agency. The photos, which had already circulated across social media, showed his inaugural crowd from the day before not reaching even nearly as far as that of Mr Obama's. The new White House had spent the large part of Mr Trump's first day in office falsely claiming his inauguration was the most-viewed in history, with the largest audience in attendance in Washington. Despite numerous inauguration crowd sizes appearing larger than Mr Trump’s, the administration pressed on, with the documents revealing that former White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeatedly called NPS throughout the day "in pursuit of the more flattering photographs". The scene of Donald Trump's inauguration as US President on January 20 2017 (L) and Barack Obama's first swearing in ceremony in 2009 (Reuters (L) Getty (R)) Eventually, a government photographer associated with NPS edited pictures from the inauguration to crop out areas that had not been filled by audience members. The documents did not reveal whether or not the NPS or another government entity has released those edited photos to the public. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A previous inspector general’s report published in June 2017 made no mention of the president’s direct involvement in the controversy, which garnered national headlines for several weeks. Mr Trump complained about "a lot of empty areas" he had seen from his inauguration in photos released by NPS, according to one communications official whose name had been redacted from the newly-released files. That official reportedly told investigators "she got the impression that President Trump wanted to see pictures that appeared to depict more spectators in the crowd." Trump Inauguration protests around the World Show all 14 1 /14 Trump Inauguration protests around the World Trump Inauguration protests around the World Activists from Greenpeace display a message reading "Mr President, walls divide. Build Bridges!" along the Berlin wall in Berlin on January 20, 2017 to coincide with the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United State Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World An activist holds up a sign at the "We Stand United" rally on the eve of US President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration outside Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York on January 19, 2017 in New York Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World Protesters burn a U.S. flag and a mock flag with pictures of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump outside the U.S. embassy in metro Manila, Philippines Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World Filipino protestors hold placcards during a protest rally in front of the US embassy in Manila, Philippines, 20 January 2017. On the eve of President-elect Donald Trump's inaguration as the 45th president of the United States, Filipinos and Fil-Americans held a protest in front of the US embassy in Manila to denounce the incoming US president. Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World Hong Kong police officers and security guards look on as an anarchist protester belonging to the Disrupt J20 movement sits after using a heavy duty D-lock and motorcycle lock to chain himself to a railing at the entrance gate to the Consulate General of the United States of America in Hong Kong to protest the inauguration of United States President-elect Donald Trump, Hong Kong, China, 20 January 2017. Two activists were arrested and taken away by Hong Kong police during the demonstration. Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World A banner is unfurled on London's Tower Bridge, organised by Bridges Not Walls - a partnership between grassroots activists and campaigners working on a range of issues, formed in the wake of Donald Trump's election, which aims to build bridges to a world free from hatred and oppression. Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World Protesters chain themselves to an entry point prior at the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in Washington, DC, U.S. Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World Bridges Not Walls banner dropped from Molenbeek bridge in Brussels, Belgium, 20 January 2017, in an Greenpeace action part of protests Wolrd protest in solidarity with people in the US, the day Donald Trump sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World A woman holds an anti-U.S. President-elect Donald Trump placard during a rally in Tokyo, Japan, Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World A Palestinian protester holds a placard during a demonstration against the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and against US President-elect Donald Trump, on January 20, 2017, near the settlement of Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World Banners on North Bridge in Edinburgh as part of the Bridges Not Walls protest against US President Donald Trump on the day of his inauguration Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World Russian artist Vasily Slonov (L) and his assistant carry a life-sized cutout, which is an artwork created by Slonov and titled "Siberian Inauguration", before its presentation on the occasion of the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in a street in Krasnoyarsk, Russia Getty Trump Inauguration protests around the World A woman holds a banner during a march to thank outgoing President Barack Obama and reject US President-elect Donald Trump before his inauguration at a park in Tokyo, Japan, 20 January 2017. EPA Trump Inauguration protests around the World Palestinian demonstrators protesting this week against a promise by Donald Trump to re-locate the US embassy to Jerusalem Reuters The NPS photographer also told investigators he was asked to “edit a few more” of his inauguration photos from an unidentified official, though it remains unclear where exactly that request had originated. Mr Spicer was asking NPS officials for photos that “accurately represented the inauguration crowd size,” according to another person whose name was redacted — a statement that official interpreted as "a request for NPS to provide photographs in which it appeared the inauguration crowd filled the majority of the space in the photograph," which, of course, did not exist.<doc-sep>New report by The Guardian show that U.S President Donald Trump had his official inauguration photos edited to make the crowd appear bigger than Barrack Obama's inauguration in 2009. The Guardian newspaper submitted a Freedom of Information Act to obtain the documents from the U.S interior department which exposed the initial self-inflicted crisis of Trump's term. The documents obtained indicate that a phone call took place between the National Park Service (NPS) director Michael Reynolds and Trump. In addition, it was also noted that the then White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had attempted to make frequent contact with NPS officials to obtain the edited photographs. Shortly after the inauguration, social media was circulating with photos comparing Trump's inauguration with Obama's in 2009, showing that Trump's crowd had fallen short. According to the report by The Guardian, a NPS communications official was told that Trump had wanted the photos from the inauguration by Reynolds. She "got the impression that President Trump wanted to see pictures that appeared to depict more spectators in the crowd" with original photos showing "a lot of empty areas," she said. Another NPS official from the public affairs department also said that she was asked for photos that "accurately represented the inauguration crowd size" by Spicer, who has been closely involved in the tampering of the photographs. The official NPS photographer of Trump's inauguration was told by another official to edit the photos for the second submission "to make them look more symmetrical by cropping out the sky and cropping out the bottom where the crowd ended" to show that "there had been more of a crowd" he said. However, the report doesn't have the information of which photos have been edited and which are the originals.<doc-sep>
A government photographer edited pictures from President Donald Trump’s inauguration to make the crowd size appear larger than it actually was after the president was unhappy with how the event looked in photos, according to records obtained by The Guardian. After repeated requests from the White House for new pictures, the photographer cropped the areas where there were no people to make it appear that the crowd filled the frame, according to The Guardian. The request came after Trump — on his first day in office — saw comparisons of his inauguration crowd compared to former President Barack Obama and became fixated on the size of the group. According to The Guardian, there was an early morning phone call between Trump and then-acting National Park Service Director Michael Reynolds. White House press secretary Sean Spicer also dispatched repeated calls to NPS in an attempt to get a different set of photos. The call to Reynolds in search of more flattering photos and the new set was reported shortly after the inauguration in 2017 by The Washington Post. However, the documents obtained by The Guardianand reported Thursday provide new insight into how the new set of photos came out. While no one said they were ordered to crop photos, accounts from multiple people involved in the day seemed to say that they assumed the new photographs needed to be edited. According to The Guardian, a park service communications official told investigators that Reynolds called her and ordered up more photographs. She said “she got the impression that President Trump wanted to see pictures that appeared to depict more spectators in the crowd” because the images already released showed “a lot of empty areas.” The official told investigators she “assumed” that meant the photographs needed to be cropped in order to show fuller crowd sizes, but that it wasn’t an official request, according to The Guardian. Another official had a similar account after a call from Spicer. The photographer told investigators that he was told to “edit a few more” photos of the day. He said that he assumed he was supposed to crop the photos but that it wasn’t an official order. He told investigators he cropped out the sky and the bottom of the photos “where the crowd ended.” According to The Guardian’s documents, investigators said the photographer did so “to show that there had been more of a crowd.” The NPS employees names were redacted in the report, according to The Guardian. After new photos were sent to the White House, Spicer gave the infamous press conference falsely claiming to reporters that it was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”