A photo allegedly showing a crew smoking the Oval Office of the White House, following the departure of former President Donald Trump, has circulated online. However, the image has been digitally altered and is from 2017.
The image was posted on Twitter on January 20, 2021, the day of the new president Joe Biden’s inauguration, with the caption: ‘This morning. I may have framed it. ”( here ) It was also shared on Facebook, with captions such as ‘White House staff smoked and disinfected the oval office!’ (here).
Other versions of the image appear along with a joke caption from the ‘Waterford Whispers News’ (here), a self-described ‘satirical newspaper’ (here). The doctored image was first published by the store in May 2017 (here).
The image was created by posting this Alamy stock photo of civil servants smoking for mosquitoes in Argentina (bit.ly/2NkgB3P) over a Shutterstock photo with a replica Oval office in the Clinton Presidential Center (shutr.bz/35XWGyo).
Smoking is defined as “the removal of harmful insects, bacteria or diseases using chemical gas or smoke” (here).
While this image is false, detergents were sent to the White House before the arrival of the new president. An ABC News Live report explains that although the building was normally cleaned during the transition period, $ 200,000 was spent on ‘elevated homes and housework in the White House’ before Biden’s inauguration (here and here). This additional expenditure was probably due to the coronavirus pandemic.
VERDICT
Alter. This image was digitally altered in 2017 and does not show the oval office being smoked before Biden’s arrival. However, cleaners were sent to the White House during the transition period.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more here about our work to facts social media posts.