Four years of capturing Donald Trump

Photographers of the White House press corps share behind-the-scenes looks at the iconic photos of Trump’s presidency.

President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 24, 2020. (Tom Brenner / Reuters)

President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 24, 2020. (Tom Brenner / Reuters)

President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 24, 2020.
President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in Washington on June 15, 2020.
Lightning streaks across the sky as President Donald Trump arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, on Aug. 28, 2020.
Trump welcomes 11-year-old Frank Giaccio as he mows the lawn in the Rose Garden on Sept. 15, 2017.

Four years of capturing Donald Trump

Photographers of the White House press corps share behind-the-scenes looks at the iconic photos of Trump’s presidency.

By Julius Constantine Motal
Jan. 18, 2021

The rampage that swept through the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 produced a visual record unlike anything in recent memory. 

The scenes were unreal: a congressman comforting his colleague while both took cover, a horned and shirtless man screaming in the Senate, rioters scaling the walls outside, to name a few.

Both inside and outside, photographers navigated chaos to chronicle the moment, making historic photographs along the way.

Jake Angeli screams "Freedom" inside the Senate chamber after the Capitol was breached by a mob during a joint session of Congress. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Jake Angeli screams "Freedom" inside the Senate chamber after the Capitol was breached by a mob during a joint session of Congress. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., comforts Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., while taking cover. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., comforts Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., while taking cover. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

"The amount of incredible imagery that came out of this day is remarkable, how everyone rose to the occasion," Agence-France Presse photographer Saul Loeb said.

While more photographers were at the Capitol than usual that day, there is a core group who have been covering Washington for years, some of them decades, who know the halls and rooms of the Capitol arguably as well as they know their homes. They are the photographers of the White House press corps.

Loeb was assigned to cover the joint session of Congress that quickly devolved into pandemonium. One of his enduring images shows a rioter named Richard Barnett relaxing at a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, with one foot up on the desk as casually as if he were at home.

Richard Barnett sits inside the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images)

Richard Barnett sits inside the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images)

"It was just a bizarre, surreal scene," Loeb said. "Here you have the speaker of the House's office. This is the inner sanctum of the Capitol, and they had total run of the place."

The story of Jan. 6 is an extension of the Trump presidency itself, and in its waning days, it's worth looking back at how photographers have documented his presidency and pushed the bounds of political photography.

Getting close enough

Donald Trump's presidency has been a clear break from Barack Obama's in many ways. For photographers, the break manifested itself in two key ways: time and access.

"We've had more access to Donald Trump than any president I've covered," said Doug Mills, a photographer for The New York Times who has covered every administration since Ronald Reagan's.

The access has enabled photographers to produce what is possibly the most comprehensive portrait of any presidency. Whereas a photographer might have had a few minutes at the top of a Cabinet meeting in a previous administration, it wasn't unusual to be in a dimly lit room with Trump and others for nearly two hours. Mills has found that Trump prefers low lighting.

People talking in a room wouldn't immediately suggest compelling photographs, but the potential is greater when those people are some of the most powerful in the country.

President Donald Trump during a meeting in Washington on June 15, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times, Bloomberg via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump during a meeting in Washington on June 15, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times, Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A standout example is Mills' image from June 15 of Trump with his arms crossed, his eyes closed and his head tilted to one side. Light filters in through curtains and emerges from a bulb between two flags behind him. With a tight expression and closed body language, he looks aggrieved, perhaps because he's not commanding the room in that moment.

Beyond Cabinet meetings, there has been the exhaustive number of trips, events, news conferences and rallies. Brendan Smialowski captured for AFP the dissonance of Kellyanne Conway with her legs up on a couch in the Oval Office during a meeting with leaders of historically Black colleges and universities in 2017. Tom Brenner's photograph for Reuters of Trump at a rally last year with an American flag that looks as though it's rocketing out of his mouth cuts to the core of the story Trump projects.

Trump at a rally in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 24, 2020. (Tom Brenner / Reuters)

Trump at a rally in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 24, 2020. (Tom Brenner / Reuters)

Leah Millis of Reuters knew to wait long enough for a telling moment between Trump and his Black supporters in a moment of prayer last year.

"You get to know his physicalities and things that he does," Millis said.

She had noticed that he would often look up during prayer. After his Black supporters congregate around him, his eyes are closed, as seen in Chip Somodevilla's photo for Getty, and then he looks forward, projecting pride and confidence. Somodevilla's and Millis' images work in tandem to capture the multifaceted nature of the moment.

Trump bows his head during a moment of prayer with African American supporters in the White House on Feb. 27, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Trump bows his head during a moment of prayer with African American supporters in the White House on Feb. 27, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Trump looks forward during the prayer. (Leah Millis / Reuters)

Trump looks forward during the prayer. (Leah Millis / Reuters)

Photographers on the White House beat are careful not to ascribe meaning to their pictures. They are providing a raw visual document of the seat of power in Washington, and that documentation often extends beyond Washington.

Much of 2018 was characterized by the fallout from the Trump administration's severe immigration policies. On Christmas Day that year, Reuters photographer Carlos Barria was in San Antonio Secortez, a village in Guatemala, for the funeral of Jakelin Caal, a 7-year-old girl who died in U.S. custody after she was denied medical care for 90 minutes.

Friends and family carry the coffin of Jakelin Caal during her funeral in her home village of San Antonio Secortez, Guatemala, on Dec. 25, 2018. (Carlos Barria / Reuters)

Friends and family carry the coffin of Jakelin Caal during her funeral in her home village of San Antonio Secortez, Guatemala, on Dec. 25, 2018. (Carlos Barria / Reuters)

Loved ones around the coffin of Jakelin Caal. (Carlos Barria / Reuters)

Loved ones around the coffin of Jakelin Caal. (Carlos Barria / Reuters)

Barria's photographs are solemn and heartbreaking in how they depict the grief and anguish of a life cut short, and being there brought home for him his role as a photojournalist covering the White House.

"It closes the whole circle of being a photojournalist, to see where the policies are made and seeing it down there," Barria said.

Taking chances

If there is one thing that Trump, with his history of showmanship, is attuned to above all else, it's his own image, and photographers have met the challenge of bringing the reality of a man like that to the public.

"I think it has ushered in a new era of photojournalists to be more creative," said Sarah Silbiger, a freelance photojournalist who works for Getty Images and other outlets.

With the immense volume of images, photographers like Silbiger look to take pictures that offer something different. At a coronavirus news conference on April 4, Silbiger took a picture of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence from behind that feels revelatory without showing much at all. Trump is leaning down to talk with Pence, and while their exchange is unknowable, there is a slight tension. In another Silbiger photograph from June 23, Dr. Anthony Fauci appears to be in a moment of tranquility. It was before a House hearing, Silbiger said, and he was in the midst of taking a deep breath.

Vice President Mike Pence and Trump hold a coronavirus press conference in Washington on April 4, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger / Getty Images)

Vice President Mike Pence and Trump hold a coronavirus press conference in Washington on April 4, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger / Getty Images)

Dr. Anthony Fauci before a House hearing on June 23, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Dr. Anthony Fauci before a House hearing on June 23, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Occasionally, quick reflexes and some luck translate into iconic photographs, as was the case for an Air Force One landing at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Aug. 28. Four photographers found themselves on the tarmac that night, as they had many times before; this time, it was dark and stormy after a rally earlier in the day. The ground was slick with rainwater, reflections stretching like phantoms underfoot. Umbrella in hand, Trump was near the bottom of the staircase when a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky.

Nearby, Barria, Loeb, Mills and Evan Vucci of The Associated Press responded with a flurry of clicks, and remarkably, each captured the bolt in stark, cinematic frames.

(Carlos Barria / Reuters)

(Carlos Barria / Reuters)

(Evan Vucci / AP)

(Evan Vucci / AP)

(Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images)

(Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images)

(Doug Mills / The New York Times via Redux)

(Doug Mills / The New York Times via Redux)

"You could do that 1,000 times, and that would probably never happen again," Vucci said. "It was one of the strangest things I've ever been a part of in my life."

The four views of the lightning bolt were emblematic of the competition and camaraderie among photographers covering the White House: a group of photographers working the same scene, occasionally in close quarters.

Trump welcomes 11-year-old Frank Giaccio as he mows the lawn in the Rose Garden. (Carlos Barria / Reuters)

Trump welcomes 11-year-old Frank Giaccio as he mows the lawn in the Rose Garden. (Carlos Barria / Reuters)

Sometimes, just one photographer gets the image that resonates widely. Instantly recognizable is one Barria took on Sept. 15, 2017, of an 11-year-old boy mowing the grass; Trump stands nearby, seeming to shout at him. It achieved meme status almost instantaneously and is revived every time something outlandish happens. The most recent version came after Twitter suspended Trump's account indefinitely on Jan. 8. In the new meme, he asks the boy for his phone so he can post on Twitter.

Post-inauguration

Looking ahead to the Biden administration, the photographers of the White House press corps hope mainly for as much access as possible to be able to tell as complete a story as possible.

"I think that is better for the American people," said Millis, sharing Mills' sentiment. "It just shows a healthy, working democracy."

Those who covered the Obama administration occasionally found themselves hamstrung by lack of access.

"They relied heavily on handout photos, which I hope we don't go back to," Loeb said.
President-elect Joe Biden's mandate is substantial: The coronavirus is on a tear throughout the country, the economy is suffering, and after Jan. 6, the potential for political violence is clearer than it has ever been.

Of the many iconic images from Jan. 6, one with particular staying power shows the Capitol at dusk. Taken by Millis, it shows the moment police threw a flash-bang grenade to try to clear protesters from the building. It wouldn't look out of place in a dystopian film or a political thriller. The image is enormous both in the scope of what it shows and in its implications.

Police use a flash-bang grenade during a riot by Trump supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Leah Millis / Reuters)

Police use a flash-bang grenade during a riot by Trump supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Leah Millis / Reuters)

"I hope that, if anything, this photo brings some awareness to people about the danger that our country is in," Millis said.

It's unclear how Biden will run his administration and how he will interact with the news media, but if anyone is ready and raring to go, it's the photographers waiting in the wings.

"It's going to be another round of the need to adapt," Brenner said. By his account, Brenner had about 51 seconds at a recent event for Biden. If the windows of time are similarly minuscule going forward, the photographers of the White House press corps will have to work that much harder.