White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has been accused of “doctoring” the footage of the incident between CNN’s Jim Acosta, who has had his White House pass revoked, and a female intern.
The video above shows a comparison between the original moment released by ABC News, and the clip shared by the White House.
Mr Acosta is seen trying to keep hold of the microphone while Trump’s aide makes three unsuccessful attempts to take it from him.
On the third attempt, Mr Acosta’s hand blocks the female aide’s arm.
Ms Sanders shared the video on Twitter, saying: “We stand by our decision to revoke this individual’s hard pass. We will not tolerate the inappropriate behaviour clearly documented in this video.”
Social users were quick to accuse the press secretary of ‘editing’ the footage to make Mr Acosta’s movement appear more forceful.
One wrote: “Sarah Sanders caught uploading InfoWars doctored video from her official gov account because the White House had an intern attack Jim Acosta to trump up false charges is peak Banana Republicanism – Sue her @CNN.”
Another added: “This is a new low even for you. Sharing a video that was manipulated is an assault on the truth. You should be fired immediately.”
Mr Acosta has had his White House media credentials withdrawn following a fiery row with Trump during a Presidential press conference yesterday.
Ms Sanders commented: “As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.”
During the heated exchange, the US President accused the CNN reporter of being the “enemy of the people”.
The CNN reporter asked Donald Trump whether he thought he had “dehumanised migrants” in his Midterm elections campaign, and asked the US President to explain why he had referred to the caravan of migrants arriving from Central America as an “invasion”.
Mr Trump replied: “I consider it an invasion. You and I have a difference of opinion. I want them to come into the country but they have to come in through a process.
“I want it to be a process and I want people to come in. And we need the people. Wait. You know why we need the people? Because we have hundreds of companies moving in.”
The CNN reporter Acosta said: “But your campaign had an ad showing migrants climbing over walls.”
President Trump defended the ad, saying: “That’s true. They weren’t actors. Do you think they were actors? They didn’t come from Hollywood. These were actual people, it happened a few days ago.
“Honestly? I think you should let me run the country, you run CNN, and if you did it well your ratings would be much better.”