Trump situation room photo of Baghdadi raid is staged 'because time stamp indicates it was taken two hours later', says Obama photographer

Pete Souza appeared to claim that the president was not actually monitoring the situation when the photo was snapped.

UPDATED FEB 27, 2020

According to the chief official White House photographer for former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, the snap of President Trump watching the raid on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was staged.

Pete Souza has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration. In a recent tweet, he noted that the timestamp on the photo showing the president's stern expression alongside the US military's top brass indicated it was taken at 17.05 pm on Saturday -- over 90 minutes after the 3.30 pm raid was reported to have taken place, Newsweek reports.

Souza, with his statement, appeared to claim that the president was not actually monitoring the situation when the photo was snapped.

His tweet set off a number of Trump critics, who shared his speculation that the photo was posed for PR purposes.

Trump had returned to the White House at 3.33 pm after playing golf in the morning, as per multiple reports.

However, Trump's supporters responded by asserting it was possible the raid could have continued through the time the photo was taken.

And Souza acknowledged that possibility in another tweet.

"Before drawing definite conclusions about the photo, reporters need to nail down the actual timeline of the raid," he wrote.

Trump's photo bore a stunning resemblance to the famous image of Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton closely watching as Navy Seals raided the compound in Pakistan before immobilizing al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in 2011.

In this handout image provided by The White House, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House May 1, 2011, in Washington, DC. (Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images)

Trump boasted on Sunday how the military raid that took out al-Baghdadi was a much bigger achievement than Obama's strike against Bin Laden.

At 9 am in the morning, the commander-in-chief told a press conference that the terror leader had detonated his suicide vest and killed himself and three of his children after being cornered by US Special Ops forces in his hideout in northwest Syria.

"Bin Laden was a big thing, but this is the biggest there is. This is the worst ever," Trump declared in victory. "Osama bin Laden was big, but Osama bin Laden became big with the World Trade Center. This is a man who built a whole, as he would like to call it, a country, a caliphate," he added.