--- description: When Donald Trump took over the @POTUS Twitter account, he briefly used an old photo from Barack Obama's inauguration. title: Trump Used a Photo From Obama's Inauguration on Twitter image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52ec50a99af2a89a/6988b668ab6d77c0dd6ac8cc/trump-header-photo-facebook.jpg?branch=production ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Donald Trump Used a Photo From Obama's Inauguration on Twitter by [Olivier Laurent](/author/olivier-laurent/) ## Olivier Laurent Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 20, 2017 7:06 PM CUT  A view of the crowd at President Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009. A view of the crowd at President Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009.Getty Images by [Olivier Laurent](/author/olivier-laurent/) ## Olivier Laurent Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 20, 2017 7:06 PM CUT As Donald Trump stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to recite the oath of office, the social media accounts for the President of the United States were automatically transferred from Barack Obama’s administration to Trump’s. On Twitter, the @POTUS Twitter account shed Obama’s portrait and cover photograph replaced, just after 9 a.m., by Trump’s likeness and an image of a crowd of people waving American flags as they stood, in the freezing cold, in front of the Capitol. > [](https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/822490124764123136) One problem, though: That image was from Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, readily available on Getty Images for anyone to purchase including, it seems, Trump’s own communication team. The photograph stayed up on Trump’s @POTUS account for several hours before being replaced first with an American flag and then with a low-resolution portrait of Trump looking out of a window. But it was too late, the Internet had noticed. > [](https://twitter.com/kylebuchanan/status/822492155809656833) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4641324/trump-inauguration-twitter-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4641324/trump-inauguration-twitter-photo/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Used a Photo From Obama's Inauguration on Twitter","datePublished":"2017-01-20T19:06:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:20.124Z","description":"The image stayed up for a few hours","url":"https://time.com/4641324/trump-inauguration-twitter-photo/","keywords":["LightBox","Newsfeed","twitter","photography","President","Donald Trump","trump inauguration"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52ec50a99af2a89a/6988b668ab6d77c0dd6ac8cc/trump-header-photo-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivier Laurent","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/olivier-laurent/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52ec50a99af2a89a/6988b668ab6d77c0dd6ac8cc/trump-header-photo-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump-header-photo-facebook","caption":"A view of the crowd at President Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009.","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4641324/trump-inauguration-twitter-photo/","name":"Donald Trump Used a Photo From Obama's Inauguration on Twitter"}}]}] ```