Trump removes photo with Pa. State Police from his social media site

Sep. 9—WILKES-BARRE — A photo taken with former president Donald Trump standing with more than 30 Pennsylvania State Troopers during last Saturday's "Save America" rally at Mohegan Sun Arena has caused some controversy, and the photo has been removed from Trump's social media site "Truth Social."

The Pennsylvania State Police provided a statement to media outlets:

"PSP members at this particular event were afforded an opportunity to gather for a photograph with the former President.

"The photograph in question was not officially sanctioned or disseminated by the Pennsylvania State Police. The Pennsylvania State Police does not endorse any political candidate or campaign.

"Again, and as is customary with many dignitaries who attend an event where PSP is assigned to augment security, troopers who were at the event on Saturday (Sept. 3) but not actively assigned to a security post during this brief period of time, were afforded an opportunity to gather for a photograph with the former president with the understanding that it would only be distributed to the troops in the photo as memorabilia.

"Troopers in the photo all voluntarily participated, again with the understanding that it was a photo op with the former president to be sent to them as memorabilia.

"It was not sanctioned or disseminated by the Pennsylvania State Police, nor was PSP asked permission to use the photo opportunity for anything other than a private photo with the former president."

According to a PennLive story written by Christine Vendel, Trump removed the photo from the top of his social media page Thursday after the state police said they did not give the former president permission to publish it.

PennLive reported that Trump left the photo in his news feed on his social media account at "Truth Social," a platform he launched after getting banned from Twitter, that attracts his fans. The report states Trump removed the photo as the banner of his account sometime before 4 p.m., hours after PennLive posted a story about the controversy, and replaced it with a generic crowd photo from the rally in Wilkes-Barre last week where the troopers were helping to provide security.

Trump's former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino Jr. had published the photo hours after the campaign rally ended, but also removed the photo Thursday afternoon. However, the photo was still visible on his Twitter account shortly before 5 p.m., PennLive reported.

PennLive also reported that the photo generated a firestorm on Twitter, with thousands of people commenting that it appeared to be an endorsement, which would be inappropriate, and reflected poorly on the police since Trump is facing multiple criminal investigations and after police officers were injured and killed in the Jan. 6 riots.

Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.