Newly Released White House Photos Show Obama and Trump Together on the Day Power Changed Hands

A viral graphic claims “Barack Obama in disbelief” after the White House released photographs involving Obama and Donald Trump. The underlying release is real, but the graphic misstates who released the material and what it shows.

1. The Barack Obama Presidential Library has made available a collection of photographs and video from January 20, 2017, the day Donald Trump was inaugurated as president.
2. The records were released through a Freedom of Information Act request identified as FOIA 25-12322-F, covering photographs and videos recorded inside the White House that day.
3. The collection contains 701 photographs and four video clips, according to the official finding aid maintained by the Obama Presidential Library.
4. Of those 701 photographs, the library says 700 were released in full while one photograph remains withheld in full under applicable records restrictions.
5. The material primarily documents Barack Obama’s final hours inside the White House before he departed for Trump’s inauguration ceremony and formally left office.
6. Among the released images are photographs of Obama and Michelle Obama greeting President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump when they arrived at the White House.
7. The collection also includes photographs of the Obamas hosting the incoming Trumps for the traditional inaugural tea before the transfer of presidential power.
8. Other photographs document Obama saying farewell to employees who worked in the White House residence and the ushers’ office during his presidency.
9. The records additionally contain footage of Obama and Vice President Joe Biden walking separately along the White House Colonnade during the final transition period.
10. The library also identifies video showing the Obamas greeting the Trumps and the Bidens greeting incoming Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence.
11. The newly available material does not establish that Obama was “in disbelief,” as the viral graphic claims. That wording is an interpretation added by the graphic rather than a finding in the official archive.
12. The Obama Presidential Library is part of the presidential libraries system administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, rather than being an office controlled by the current White House.
13. This distinction matters because the graphic’s phrase “White House drops photos” can imply that the current Trump administration personally released the photographs. The official records instead identify the Obama Presidential Library and the FOIA process.
14. The photographs themselves capture a historically significant moment: Trump, then president-elect, entered the White House as Obama prepared to leave after completing two presidential terms.
15. Images from that day have remained part of the historical record, but the newly processed collection provides additional material from inside the building that was not previously available to researchers.
16. The release also provides a closer visual record of the unusually brief transition between two presidents whose political careers and governing approaches were markedly different.
17. Previous photographs from January 20, 2017, already documented Obama welcoming Trump to the White House before the inauguration, including images of the two men meeting inside the executive mansion.
18. The newly processed collection expands that historical record by including hundreds of photographs covering Obama’s final activities, the incoming president’s arrival and the preparations surrounding the transfer of power.
19. The archive states that the materials were processed by staff archivists and that previously restricted material is added as records become available under applicable rules.
20. The release therefore represents a significant archival addition to the record of the 2017 presidential transition, while the viral claim that Obama was visibly “in disbelief” remains unsupported by the official description of the photographs.

Related images