Former White House photographer Pete Souza deleted his X account after receiving backlash for sharing a photo of former President Trump’s ear.
In his post, Souza appeared to question the extent of Trump’s injuries sustained in a shooting at a Trump rally earlier this month.
In a post on Saturday, Souza shared a photo taken by The Associated Press of Trump boarding a plane, urging users to take a “close look” at the former president’s ear, which was hit by a bullet during a shooting at a rally earlier this month.
“Here’s a photo from the Associated Press this morning,” Souza wrote in a Saturday post on X. “Look closely at the ear that was ‘hit’ by a bullet from an AR-15 assault rifle.”
Trump was seen with a bandage on his right ear days after the shooting, but in the photo shared by Souza, he was shown without the bandage as he boarded the plane.
Souza, who received criticism online for the photo, Instagram Posts On Monday he deleted his X account.
“So I have deleted my Twitter account. This was a gut decision made by me alone. I don’t know yet if this is temporary or permanent,” Souza wrote in a lengthy Instagram post.
As of Monday afternoon, Souza’s account on X no longer exists.
Souza said he had received comments in response to X’s post saying the photo was taken at a different time or that the ear shown in the photo was not the one that was shot. He said he responded to the criticism by sharing a post by Doug Mills of The New York Times that showed another photo of Trump boarding a plane at the same time and place as the AP photo.
“Doug is one of Trump’s favorite photographers and Trump has publicly called him ‘my genius photographer,’ so I thought the magazine world would at least believe Doug Mills. But that didn’t happen. The comments got ugly. Mostly about me but some disparaging about Doug Mills,” he wrote on Instagram.
Mills wrote that while she is used to receiving negative comments about herself, her post led to her “receiving hateful messages on my Twitter account” and that “that’s not cool.”
Souza also clarified that X owner Elon Musk had not banned him from the platform, as some users had suggested. He said he had received a text message from The New York Times asking if he had any comment about his apparent booting from X.
“It’s time to respond. I have a lot more to say about the current state of social media, but for now I want to be clear that I was not kicked off Twitter. I kicked myself out,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
After a gunman opened fire on President Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, there was much speculation in the weeks following the rally about whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that struck him in the ear. Trump maintained he was hit by a bullet, not glass or shrapnel, and the FBI later confirmed that it was a bullet.
