Did FIFA just crop President Trump out of an official photograph of the World Cup trophy ceremony? Here’s my expert photographer’s take

The Spanish national football team’s well-deserved second FIFA World Cup victory has been somewhat overshadowed by the Argentinian team’s conduct before and after the final whistle, drawing criticism regarding the defending champions’ behaviour. But another incident has dominated headlines: footage of US President Donald Trump appearing to overstay his welcome during the sacred lifting of the trophy.

And now, some outlets are reporting that the US President has been intentionally cropped out of official photographs of the historic moment, including an image posted on the official FIFA World Cup X account (formerly Twitter) .

What happened?

The POTUS was given the honor, alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino, of handing out medals to both teams as well as presenting the fabled trophy to Spain captain Rodri, during the ceremony at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. Rodri appears to gently guide the US President to one side, but he stalls right on the edge of the crowd as the team prepares to lift the trophy.

Even Infantino appears to coax Trump further away, but the beaming President faces the cameras and claps the victors as Rodri launches the trophy into the sky amidst a hail of golden confetti. Only then does Trump head off.

Of course, plenty of photographers were on hand to immortalize the moment, intent on capturing that initial burst of jubilation. However, an official photograph posted on the FIFA World Cup X account (above) depicting the initial celebration features an extremely tight 4:5 crop, which only includes what appears to be a very slim portion of the President’s suit. The news comes following a hot-mic moment during the broadcast when Australian commentator Claudio Fabiano could be heard saying: “They can edit him out of that,” seemingly referring to Trump.

Was the crop intentional?

I can only comment on the situation as a photography expert. And firstly, I should address a few things. I’ve seen the word ‘edited’ thrown around a lot, which can conjure images of subject removal, cloning, etc, but from the images I’ve seen, it simply looks like they don’t extend far enough to include Trump.

Now, there’s two ways to crop, the photographer can either crop in-camera by altering the framing, or you can crop in post-production, by using a cropping tool to physically reduce the borders of the image. It’s therefore entirely possible that some of the images being shown were not cropped, but simply never framed the President in the first place.

Still, the image on FIFA’s X account is so tightly framed, my best guess is that it was cropped in post-production (although I cannot be sure). This isn’t necessarily a political move, however. In the world of photography, it’s rather common to crop out distractions that detract from the main subject of the image. And while Trump is very often the main subject, he stood to one side and was therefore secondary to the subject matter, the Spanish national team’s hard-fought victory.

While politicians come and go, this was a very specific moment to be immortalized in the annals of football history. Looking at the bigger picture, it certainly makes sense from a narrative and compositional perspective, to crop out any distractions beyond the team itself, whether that be Trump, Infantino or anyone or anything else.

This contrasts sharply with a very similar situation that happened a year ago, when Donald Trump also stayed put during Chelsea’s FIFA Club World Cup trophy lift at the same stadium. Rather than stand to one side, he found himself right between captain Reece James and goalkeeper Robert Sánchez for the brunt of the celebration. In this instance, the script is flipped, the situation is so unusual and Trump is so integral to the composition that he becomes the subject matter and from a photographer’s standpoint that only adds to the interest and intrigue of the imagery.

So, do I think Donald Trump was intentionally cropped out of the image? Yes, and if I was editing it, I would have done the same because his presence detracts from the subject matter. However, if I’d been photographing Chelsea’s FIFA Club World Cup victory, I’d have been frantically capturing image after image of the President among the players, knowing I was photographing a bizarre yet historic moment in its own right.