The White House on Friday released a photo of President Trump, surrounded by top aides, receiving a briefing on Thursday night after the military’s airstrikes in Syria.
WH photo (ed for security): @potus receives briefing on #syria military strike fr Nat Security team, inc @vp , SECDEF, CJCS via secure VTC pic.twitter.com/aaCnR7xomR
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) April 7, 2017
Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said the photo was taken at about 9:15 p.m. EST at a sensitive compartmented information facility at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort where the president has been. He said the photo was edited for security.
Spicer said the briefing involved Trump’s national security team, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
Among those seen sitting at the briefing table with Trump: deputy chief of staff for operations Joe Hagin, senior adviser Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.
Also seated in the room: Spicer, a military aide, chief strategist Stephen Bannon, senior adviser Stephen Miller, adviser Michael Anton, deputy national security adviser Dina Powell and director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn.
Some have already made comparisons to the well-known photo of Barack Obama and his team during the Osama bin Laden raid in 2011.
I wonder if the similarity to bin laden raid photo is intentional #SyriaStrikes pic.twitter.com/W6h69yGXOL
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 7, 2017