Twitter rolled out the header photo back in 2012 as a way for users to make their accounts “more meaningful,” and @realDonaldTrump has made the most of the feature ever since.
In the last two weeks alone, President Trump has swapped the photo on his personal account five different times. While North Korea was threatening to vaporize Guam and white supremacists tore Charlottesville to pieces, Trump was adding a little bit of flare to his microblog.
Normally, no one could blame the leader of the free world for wanting a little variety, and it’s not clear whether the president or his team changed the photos (the White House did not return request for comment). But at the same time, Trump loves his Twitter and jealously guards his account. So, why has the president been messing around on the Internet recently? Who knows?
Below are the five different photos that Trump has displayed in the last 14 days.
August 1st: Trump started the month with a classic banner photo: Old Glory.
August 8th: The day news broke that North Koreans had successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead, Trump switched his banner photo. It shows the president at the head of a boardroom at FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center (side note: toward the far end of the table, Energy Secretary Rick Perry appears to be picking his nose).
August 10: Always one for a big crowd, Trump goes for a banner photo of him at a West Virginia rally.
August 12: Three are dead and dozens more injured as neo-Nazi thugs and Antifa brutes clash in the streets of Charlottesville. Meanwhile, Trump adds a banner photo of him surrounded by his national security team. They look resolute as Trump dodges the issue of white nationalism.
August 15: Trump changes his banner photo to a shot of him addressing a crowd in front of an American flag.
No doubt, Trump supporters will cry “Fake News!” They will complain that the media has unfairly put the president under a microscope. And honestly, that’d be a fair point if Trump was in the habit of acting boldly and decisively.
But after the last seven months, and after Charlottesville in particular, it seems the president is becoming more and more absorbed by the Twitters.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
