Politics
Trump’s Face Pops Up on LinkedIn Pages of Former White House Staff
Former staffers from past US administrations are opening LinkedIn and finding something they didn’t sign up for: Donald Trump staring back at them. The White House recently updated its official LinkedIn profile picture to a shot of Trump, which means anyone who once worked under presidents like Barack Obama now has his face showing up on their work history.
Donald Trump Jr. was quick to cheer on the move, calling it “one of the great trolls of all time.” But it isn’t just Obama-era staff who are stuck with the new look. Hundreds of employees from different administrations, including some who worked for Trump and later turned against him, are now seeing his portrait attached to their professional past. Among them is Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump’s former aide who has since spoken out about her time in the White House, reported Yahoo.
It’s not clear if presidents such as Joe Biden, George W. Bush or Bill Clinton even have LinkedIn pages, but their ex-staffers certainly do. At least one workaround exists.
The LinkedIn page for the Executive Office of the President doesn’t currently feature Trump’s image, so some are using that instead. The White House didn’t respond to the Daily Beast when asked why the photo had been changed.
The move fits a pattern. Trump has never been shy about stamping his image on government spaces. Back in May, his face was splashed across a massive banner hung on the Department of Agriculture building.
Just last month, a giant portrait of him, paired with one of Teddy Roosevelt, was dropped from the roof of the Department of Labor alongside the words “American Workers First.”
Inside the White House, Trump has also made sure his presence is impossible to miss. He’s put up several paintings of himself, and when he had the chance to quietly move Barack Obama’s portrait from a prime spot in the foyer to a little-used stairwell, he took it.
For some, the LinkedIn stunt might feel like a small thing, but for former staff trying to keep their online presence professional, it’s more than a mild irritation. Logging on to update a CV and finding Trump’s face staring out from a past role is a reminder that the former president has a knack for keeping himself front and centre, even in places no one expects.
