Former Rare Staff
While on the second leg of his foreign policy trip to Asia, a photographer, possibly incensed at the lack of press access to a meeting during the trip, tweeted a picture of President Trump in an awkward pose while at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Philippines.
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Trump embraced foreign leaders in Manila in a pose known as the ASEAN “family photo,” an annual tradition. But the picture shared by Doug Mills of the New York Times made Trump look a bit oafish compared to the others around him.
.@realDonaldTrump joins other leaders in a handshake with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, right, during the opening ceremony of the 31st ASEAN Summit pic.twitter.com/mfqTU8AmUr
— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) November 13, 2017
A picture of Trump at a different moment paints him in a different light.
David Nakamura of the Washington Post questioned why Mills and others skipped over pictures of the president looking serious to choose the sillier ones:
Critics of the media, perhaps including Trump himself, might point to Mills’s photo as evidence that the “mainstream media” is out to undermine the president in an unfair and biased manner. Surely there were many other frames Mills could have chosen that made Trump look more distinguished. Yet Mills and other pool photographers published the awkward ones.
One might argue that the picture choice was just a coincidence.
However, Nakamura noted that Mills first voiced his frustrations on the trip by tweeting a blank space with the caption, “This what our APEC Summit photo coverage looks today in Da Nang Vietnam. Blank. No coverage by the White House Travel Pool photographers traveling with @realDonaldTrump.”
This what our APEC Summit photo coverage looks today in Da Nang Vietnam. Blank. No coverage by the White House Travel Pool photographers traveling with @realDonaldTrump #APEC2017 #apec pic.twitter.com/jFgsJW5OcO
— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) November 11, 2017
