Is it true that the Pope did not smile at Donald Trump?
It depends on the photographs you look at: the one that circulated a lot yesterday tells only part of the story
Yesterday Donald Trump met the Pope in the Vatican during his brief visit to Italy. There has been a lot of talk about the meeting in the newspapers: not only because it was the first meeting between two important heads of state, but also because Trump in the past had spoken ill of the Pope and his positions on immigration and the environment, and also the Pope had criticized Trump. Many photos of yesterday's meeting circulated: first the one showing the clothing chosen by first lady Melania Trump for the audience in the Vatican (as we explained, it was not so strange) and then those showing Trump and the Pope: with the first smiling and the second serious and composed, with an almost angry expression.
The photo was jokingly picked up by several newspapers and started to go around a lot on Facebook too, instantly becoming a kind of meme. The subtext was: Trump is a negative character and despite the fact that he had spoken ill of the Pope in the past he pretended nothing had happened with a nice smile; the Pope, on the other hand, is a positive character and has done nothing to hide his contempt for Trump. For anyone who doesn't like Trump it was a perfect photo.
Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci, one of six who had been admitted to the room where the first group meeting took place between Trump and his delegation and the Pope, explained however that the photo does not tell the whole story. Vucci explained to Time that when the photo was taken the atmosphere in the room was anything but serious: both the Pope and Trump were very smiling and in good spirits and there was nothing that seemed strange. Then everyone lined up for about 30 seconds to take a group photo, and for some reason the Pope's expression at that moment was serious and composed.
Pope Francis with different heads of state during their visits at the Vatican.
— Cassie Dagostino (@casatino) May 24, 2017
Something seems...different 🤔 pic.twitter.com/JiyVTs014G
There are several videos of yesterday’s meeting, and all of them confirm Vucci’s version: the Pope smiled at Trump and the other guests.
There are also photos in which the Pope normally smiles at Trump, only they have circulated much less because they lack that easy subtext "Pope Vs. Trump".
As both Time and CNN wrote in two articles dedicated to the strange dissemination of that particular photo of the Pope and Donald Trump, it is an interesting case study to explain how the photos - from which we often expect a "true and objective" description of the reality - can distort or tell something very partially. Yesterday the photo that put Trump in a bad light was shot a lot: however, no one had thought that the Pope wanted to send a message against Obama in 2014, when this photo was taken.
