Pete Souza has been subtly throwing shade at POTUS with old pictures of Barack Obama.
Former official White House photographer Pete Souza captured many beautiful and memorable moments during ex-POTUS Barack Obama's presidency. However, even with Obama out of the White House, Pete Souza's pictures of his former boss haven't dried up. The photographer has been posting several old pictures of Obama on Instagram and clever netizens were quick to realise there was a certain pattern to the photo sharing. Turns out, Mr Souza has been subtly throwing shade at current US President Donald Trump through his pictures. Every time President Trump has a controversial moment, an old picture of Barack Obama seems to pop up.
Pete Souza currently has a following of over 8.9 lakh followers on Instagram. One of the clearest hints that he was, in fact, trying to make a point about President Trump was this picture of Obama talking to a young refugee girl way back in 2015.
A week later, he shared this photo of former POTUS meeting Alex, the six-year-old boy who wrote him a letter about Syrian boy Omar Daqneesh. Pictures and videos of Omar sitting stunned in an ambulance after being rescued went viral last year.
Remember Alex, the six-year-old boy who wrote President Obama a letter about the Syrian boy photographed in the ambulance. Alex visited the Oval Office with his family the day after the election. "Dear President Obama, Remember the boy who was picked up by the ambulance in Syria? Can you please go get him and bring him to [my home]? Park in the driveway or on the street and we will be waiting for you guys with flags, flowers, and balloons. We will give him a family and he will be our brother. Catherine, my little sister, will be collecting butterflies and fireflies for him. In my school, I have a friend from Syria, Omar, and I will introduce him to Omar. We can all play together. We can invite him to birthday parties and he will teach us another language. We can teach him English too, just like my friend Aoto from Japan. Please tell him that his brother will be Alex who is a very kind boy, just like him. Since he won't bring toys and doesn't have toys Catherine will share her big blue stripy white bunny. And I will share my bike and I will teach him how to ride it. I will teach him additions and subtractions in math. And he [can] smell Catherine's lip gloss penguin which is green. She doesn't let anyone touch it. Thank you very much! I can't wait for you to come! Alex 6 years old "
A photo posted by Pete Souza (@petesouza) on
The pictures seem to clearly hint at President Trump's controversial travel ban.
Pete Souza had also posted this photo, taken in 2013, of Barack Obama sampling tequila with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. The photo was posted after the Mexican President cancelled a planned visit to the White House after President Trump signed an executive order on January 25 approving the construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border. President Trump had insisted Mexico fund the construction but Mexican officials refused to do so.
There was also this photo of Obama meeting his advisors, which distinctly shows the former POTUS and three women in the Oval Office. The picture could be hinting at President Trump's group of advisors, which mostly consists of men.
The photographer shared this photo, captioned, "Those damn lights," following a New York Times article which claims: Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room.
Ouch!
Then there was this picture of Barack Obama with New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. This picture came after reports that President Trump had hung up on the Australian Prime Minister after discussing a refugee agreement over the phone.
It seems this may be the first photo Mr Souza posted to subtly troll the current US President. It was shared around the same time Twitter trolled POTUS over his 'scary' signature.
"This guy keeps throwing shade at Trump," says one commenter on Souza's pictures on Instagram. "Your subtle trolling is giving me life!" says another. "Thank you for your meaningful posts," an Instagram user says on one of the photos. "Oh Pete. I do love your work. And your great sense of humor," says another.
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