The White House unveiled a new website on Tuesday that dramatically reshapes the historical narrative of January 6, 2021, portraying the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol five years ago as “peaceful protesters” who were allegedly provoked by law enforcement.
The site falsely claims that the violence on January 6 was instigated by law enforcement and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, recasting the rioters as victims and depicting President Donald Trump as a hero for issuing sweeping pardons to nearly 1,600 individuals charged in connection with the deadly attack.
For years, Trump has downplayed the events of January 6, when thousands of his supporters violently breached the Capitol in an effort to block Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
The new website, however, goes further than Trump’s previous rhetoric, offering an official White House platform to claims that have long been debunked.
One central theme on the site is Trump’s persistent, but false, assertion that the 2020 election was stolen. His repeated allegations of widespread voter fraud were the very reason he and his supporters sought to halt Congress’s certification of the results.
White House communications director Steven Cheung suggested in an X post that the webpage was intended as a “trap” to provoke media outrage. CNN has previously reported on the Trump administration’s use of the official White House website to antagonize political opponents.
Cherry-picked ‘timeline’
A carefully curated “timeline” on the site portrays Trump’s January 6 speech at the Ellipse as “detailing evidence of election fraud” and urging the crowd to march to the Capitol to peacefully demonstrate and show “strength and determination.”
The timeline omits the portions of Trump’s speech where he twice instructed supporters to “fight like hell,” even though his fraud claims had already been debunked weeks earlier.
The website glosses over the rioters’ actions, including breaking windows and assaulting police. Instead, it claims the rally was “orderly and spirited, with flags, signs, and chants supporting President Trump.”
It also baselessly accuses US Capitol Police of “deliberately escalating tensions” when crowds of Trump supporters surged into the complex, citing “provocative tactics,” like firing tear gas, that supposedly “turned a peaceful demonstration into chaos,” despite ample video evidence showing rioters attacking police first. CNN has reached out to the Capitol Police for comment.
The site further claims that Trump supporters who died outside the Capitol from natural causes, a heart attack and a stroke, were “killed” that day. It also falsely asserts that “zero law enforcement officers lost their lives,” overlooking the death of US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered strokes a day after being assaulted defending the Capitol.
Four other officers who responded to the riot later died by suicide, and 140 others were injured, some requiring hospitalization, with many developing PTSD.
Blaming Pence and Pelosi
The webpage champions Trump’s claim that then-Vice President Mike Pence “had the opportunity to return disputed electoral slates to state legislatures for review and decertification,” but chose not to act “in an act of cowardice and sabotage.”
Legal experts, Pence himself, and even some of Trump’s aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, maintain that it would have been blatantly unconstitutional for Pence to refuse certification.
The site also paints Pelosi as a key villain of January 6, seizing on her comments in an HBO documentary where she said, “I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.”
That statement, however, does not substantiate Trump’s repeated claim that Pelosi rejected his purported offer of 10,000 National Guard troops for advance deployment. Pelosi has consistently denied receiving such an offer, and the president—not the House speaker, commands the DC National Guard.
“January 6th was not an aberration and it was not spontaneous. It was the culmination of a sustained assault on truth, on the rule of law, and one of the most sacred principles of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power,” Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday, describing January 6 as an “attempted coup” incited by Trump to overturn the 2020 election.
The website also portrays Trump as a victim, claiming he was “silenced” on social media and “debanked” by financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.
It argues that Trump “corrected a historic wrong” by pardoning thousands charged or convicted in the Capitol attack. On his first day in office last year, he pardoned nearly all 1,600 rioters and commuted the sentences of leaders of right-wing extremist groups, including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
The White House labels all 1,600 pardon recipients as “patriotic Americans,” a group that includes far-right militia members, individuals convicted of assaulting police, alleged Nazi sympathizers, and those who brought weapons into the Capitol.
