Sarah Sanders issued a begrudging clarification after being accused of posting a misleading photograph on Twitter of the president directing missile strikes

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Donald Trump’s press secretary issued a begrudging clarification on Sunday after being accused of posting a misleading photograph of the president online.

Sarah Sanders was criticised for a tweet on Saturday that appeared to show Trump busily directing missile strikes against Syria from the White House situation room, with Vice-President Mike Pence at his right hand.

“Last night the President put our adversaries on notice: when he draws a red line he enforces it,” Sanders wrote as a caption.

Keen observers promptly noted that the photograph could not have been taken on Friday as the attacks were mounted – because by then Pence had arrived in Peru to deliver remarks at the Summit of the Americas.

“Fascinating tweet in which Sarah Sanders reveals that Mike Pence was simultaneously in Peru and Washington,” said Walter Shaub, the former director of the office of government ethics. “If this new capability doesn’t scare our enemies, nothing will.”

Sanders on Sunday responded with a new installment from the Trump administration’s series of prickly statements in which an inaccurate remark is simultaneously defended and amended.

It said: “As I said, the President put our adversaries on notice that he enforces red lines with the strike on Syria Friday night. The photo was taken Thursday in the Situation Room during Syria briefing.”

Trump, who frequently makes untrue statements, last month posted misleading photographs of his own. Pictures supposedly showing the start of work on his much-vaunted border wall in fact showed repairs to an existing fence in California.