THE congratulatory message sent from Boris Johnson to Joe Biden after the Democrat’s victory in the US presidential elections was originally written for Donald Trump, it has emerged.
Analysis of the image shared by the UK Prime Minister reveals what seem to be the words “Trump on” and “second term” around those congratulating Biden on his historic win.
The Democrat nominee won more votes than any other presidential candidate in history and will take the US’s first female, and first minority ethnic, vice president to the White House with him.
READ MORE: Joe Biden to snub Boris Johnson as he rings round world leaders
Tweeting to congratulate Biden and Kamala Harris, Johnson said: “Congratulations to Joe Biden on his election as President of the United States and to Kamala Harris on her historic achievement.
“The US is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together on our shared priorities, from climate change to trade and security.”
Congratulations @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris pic.twitter.com/xrpE99W4c4
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) November 7, 2020
However, a closer look at the image shared by Johnson reveals that Biden was probably not the intended recipient of the UK Prime Minister’s applause.
Originally noticed by a small Twitter account with just over 100 followers, Johnson’s image seems to have been edited from an original copy which instead praised Trump.
All The National needed to do to confirm the story was download Johnson’s image, tweeted at 17:49 on November 7, and fill the background colour using Microsoft paint.
Doing so clearly reveals the letters “rump”, which seems to be followed by “on”, just above the word Biden.
Other words revealed seem to say “the future of this” underneath the words “shared priorities”, and “...d term” appears above the word “look”.
A more in-depth image manipulation reveals the words more clearly, and appears to reveal the T in Trump.
The website National File consulted a digital image expert on the issue, who said the now-visible fractals suggested the text layer could not be edited as a whole, meaning the image (presumably congratulating Trump) had already been saved.
They explained that the creator likely failed to notice these “tiny fractals left from the first edit” when erasing the original text.
Johnson was under pressure to release a statement on November 7 after CNN, AP, Fox News and other major outlets all began calling the race in Biden’s favour at 16:24 UK time on Tuesday November 7.
Nicola Sturgeon, Keir Starmer, Justin Trudeau and a host of other world leaders had already tweeted their congratulations to Biden before Johnson got his message out.
Downing Street has said the mistake was due to a "technical error".
A spokesperson said: "As you'd expect, two statements were prepared in advance for the outcome of this closely contested election.
"A technical error meant that parts of the alternative message were embedded in the background of graphic."
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