Photo Trump posted of Biden and Lisa Monaco isn’t recent

On June 19, Former President Donald Trump posted a photo of President Joe Biden and Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general of the United States, on his Truth Social account. The post’s caption suggests that Biden and Monaco were recently conspiring against Republicans.

“Biden sitting outside with Lisa Monaco, second in charge of the DOJ, probably working on future Plots and Schemes against Republicans,” the caption says.

Weeks before Trump posted the photo, he was indicted on 37 federal charges. The indictment alleges the former president mishandled and illegally kept more than 300 classified documents at his personal residence and resort club Mar-a-Lago. Trump entered a plea of not guilty and has denied any wrongdoing.

THE QUESTION

Is the photo of President Joe Biden and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco recent?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

No, the photo posted of President Joe Biden and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco is not recent. It was taken in 2013 when Biden was vice president.

WHAT WE FOUND

The photo former President Donald Trump posted of President Joe Biden and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco is not recent. The original photo was actually taken on May 1, 2013, by former chief White House photographer Pete Souza when Biden was the vice president and Monaco was the homeland security and counterterrorism advisor to President Barack Obama.

VERIFY found the original photo using TinEye, a reverse image search tool. It was first posted on the official Obama White House website in May 2013 as the “Photo of the Day.”

The photo was also uploaded to the Obama White House Archived, a Flickr photostream account maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Details about the photo show it was taken on May 1, 2013, and uploaded on June 20, 2013.

The photo’s caption on both websites reads: “Vice President Joe Biden talks with Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, in the Rose Garden at the White House, May 1, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).”

On June 20, 2023, one day after Trump posted the photo on his Truth Social account, former chief White House photographer Souza posted the photo on his own Instagram page with a long caption, that reads, in part: “I await Trump’s apology to President Biden and Lisa, and for misusing this photograph I made.”

Souza provided additional context behind the photo, noting that it was taken after Obama’s morning intelligence briefing on May 1, 2013, and posted on the White House website the next day. He also added that the photo was later uploaded to the White House Flickr photostream on June 20, 2013 — just like the photo’s details show. 

“The VP and Lisa are sitting outside the Outer Oval Office at the edge of the Rose Garden (note that no trees have yet been cut down). President Obama was departing the next day to meet with the President of Mexico,” Souza wrote.

“To me, this illustrated that he listened to staff,” Souza said of the photo.

Biden has not commented on Trump’s indictment and has said he did not plan to speak with Attorney General Merrick Garland, the head of the Department of Justice (DOJ), or other DOJ officials about it. 

“I have never once — not one single time — suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do, relative to bringing a charge or not bringing a charge,” Biden said.

Although Monaco serves as the second-ranking DOJ official, Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith, a veteran war crimes prosecutor with a background in public corruption probes, to lead the investigation into the retention of classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.