During Barack Obama’s tenure as President of the United States, White House photographer Pete Souza used his Instagram to document both the nobility and humanity of the office. Now that the gig is over, however, Souza has dedicated his feed to another important purpose: Dogging Donald Trump. For the most part, Souza has been fairly subtle with his digs. He’s simply been contrasting current events from the Trump administration with events from the Obama one. So he posted photos of Obama meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (sans awkward handshake) around the time Trump was having similar meetings. But in a new post, Souza makes his most overt Trump slam yet:
Souza’s post is a reference to the fact that when Trump held an emergency strategy session about an unexpected North Korean missile test on Saturday, he chose to do so on the patio of his Mar-a-Lago club in full view of the club’s wealthy patrons. CNN reports “the iceberg wedge salads, dripping with blue cheese dressing, had just been served on the terrace of Mar-a-Lago” when the national security discussion began.
Souza explains that during Obama’s time in office, national security discussions that had to take place while the president was traveling “were conducted in a private, secure location set up onsite.” He adds that security was so tight “everyone had to leave their Blackberry outside the area.” That’s obviously a big contrast to the public, much-photographed approach of the Trump administration, which House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi described as, “letting an international crisis play out in front of a bunch of country club members like dinner theater.”
Perhaps next Souza can share the lack of selfies that were taken with nuclear football handlers during Obama’s tenure.