Donald Trump was “directly involved” in the search for the US National Park Service employee who tweeted a photo showing the crowd at the Republican’s inauguration was smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama.

The message was sent from the official National Park Service account before being swiftly deleted and the account temporarily closed down.

The White House has denied it ordered the tweet be deleted.

However, emails obtained by MuckRock under the Freedom of Information Act and reported by CBS News show Mr Trump was concerned about the tweet and got personally involved in the investigation into how it had been posted.

“Obviously, this has become a very sensitive issue, especially since the President has gotten directly involved and contacted Acting Director Mike Reynolds concerned about one of the images that was retweeted," wrote Tim Cash, chief of digital strategy at the National Park Service, in an email sent on 21 January, the day after the inauguration, to Shaun Cavanaugh, the organisation’s chief information security officer.

The documents also reveal how National Park Service bosses attempted to track down the employee who had sent the tweet.

“We traced the IP address used for the two questionable posts to an ISP in the San Bruno, Calif., area and checked all possible NPS social media points of contacts in that area," an official wrote in one document.

The agency initially "suspected that this incident was an accidental cross-posting from a personal Twitter account (this has happened on multiple occasions in the past with other NPS social media accounts)", but later raised concern that the security of its official Twitter account could have been compromised.

Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Show all 33 1 /33 Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were marred by a string of scandals, many of which caught the eye of the Independent's cartoonists Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's first 100 days have seen him aggressively ramp up tensions with his nuclear rivals in North Korea Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has warned of a "major, major conflict" with the pariah nation lead by Kim Jong Un Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump dropped the "mother of all bombs" on alleged ISIS-linked militants in Afghanistan, amid an escalation of US military intervention around the globe Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been accused of falling short of the standards set by his predecessors in the Oval Office, including Franklin D Roosevelt Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The tycoon's ascension to the White House came at a time when the balance of power is shifting away from Western nations like those in the G7 group Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Western politicians, including the British Conservative party, have been accused of falling in line behind Mr Trump's proposals Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Brexit is seen to have weakened Britain, reducing still further any political will to resist American leadership Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump's leadership has been marked by sudden and unexpected shifts in global policy Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's controversial missile strike on Syria, which killed several citizens, was seen by some analysts as an attempt to distract from his policy elsewhere Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The President has also spent a large majority of his weekends golfing, rather than attending to matters of state Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Though free of gaffes, a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping spotlighted trade tensions between the two states Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One major and unexpected setback came when Mr Trump's Healthcare Bill was struck down by members of his own party Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been a figure of fun in the media, with his approval at record lows Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A string of revelations about Mr Trump's financial indiscretions did not mar his surge to the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Outgoing President Barack Obama was accused of wiretapping Trump Tower by his successor in America's highest office Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The alleged involvement of Russian intelligence operatives in securing Mr Trump the presidency prompted harsh criticism Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The explosive resignation of Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied about his links to 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The tweet fuelled a row about the size of Mr Trump’s inauguration crowd, which became one of the dominant stories during the Republican’s first few days in office.

Sean Spicer, the US President’s Press Secretary, used his first press briefing to criticise journalists over their coverage of the inauguration.

“Some members of the media were engaged in deliberately false reporting,” Mr Spicer said.

“Inaccurate numbers involving crowd size were also tweeted. No one had numbers... because the National Park Service does not put any out."

Mr Trump also criticised the media coverage and claimed the crowd “looked like a million and a half people”.