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At a moment of peak triumph and celebration, President-elect Donald J. Trump looks stern in his inauguration portrait.
Jan. 17, 2025, 12:43 p.m. ET
Tech billionaires, corporate chieftains and stars such as Carrie Underwood are flocking to Washington to fete Donald J. Trump. There has been such a stampede of big-money donors that his inaugural committee has run out of V.I.P. tickets and perks. And yet here is the president-elect, positively glaring in the official photograph his aides released on Thursday in advance of his inauguration.
The image, which will be printed inside the programs his supporters will clutch in their shivering hands come Monday morning, does not exactly scream celebration. Mr. Trump is shown sternly squinting, bathed in eerie, David Lynchian lighting from below, high-powered strobes reflected in his eyes. One entertainment photographer said the lighting and technique is reminiscent of the photographer Jill Greenberg’s controversial “End Times” series of crying children.
Whereas other men on the cusp of the presidency have offered anodyne, smiling inaugural images, the photo revealed on Thursday was — as with all things Trump — dramatic and startling. It is certainly reminiscent of the purposeful pose he struck for his 2024 mug shot, taken by the Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff’s office in that state’s election interference case.
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Asked to interpret the president-elect’s expression in his inauguration photo, his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, replied: “America. Is. Back.”
As a subject, Mr. Trump “knows what he’s looking for,” said Shealah Craighead, the chief White House photographer during his first administration. “He’s very hands-on. He will ask to see the photos on the back of the camera or on a computer screen while it’s happening in real time so he can decide if it’s headed in the right direction. If he likes what he sees, then he will ask to see tangible paper prints rather than on a computer.”
