Obama photographer Pete Souza mocks Trump with old State of the Union picture

'Back when our President was big enough to get along with a Speaker of the House from the opposition party'

Barack Obama's former photographer Pete Souza has shared a throwback image on Instagram of the former president laughing with an opposition leader at one of his State of the Union addresses.

The photo, taken by Mr Souza in 2014, shows the former president looking back towards John Boehner, the former Republican House speaker who served in the US House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. The two politicians are seen laughing with each other as Joe Biden looks on while smiling.

The photographer captioned the photo, “State of the Union 2014: back when our President was big enough to get along with a Speaker of the House from the opposition party and with whom he had major policy disagreements.”

Mr Souza’s photo was seen as “mocking” Donald Trump, whose calls for border wall funding to be included in bills to reopen the federal government has spurred the longest shutdown in American history.

In the midst of the president’s border wall battle, a new fight has emerged on Capitol Hill over the upcoming State of the Union address that was initially scheduled for the end of the month.

In a letter to Mr Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested working with the president to pick a new date for the address after initially inviting him to give the speech on 29 January from the US House of Representatives.

The California Democrat cited the ongoing shutdown and security concerns as part of the reason she was inclined to push back the address, as the federal employees responsible for keeping lawmakers safe throughout the event would be forced to work without pay.

The letter triggered swift backlash from Mr Trump, who cancelled a CODEL trip involving Ms Pelosi and other Democrats hours before they were expected to travel to Afghanistan to meet with US troops.

He later wrote a letter to the House speaker saying he intended to conduct the address on the previously scheduled date, causing Ms Pelosi to officially revoke her invitation to the president.

Mr Trump said on Wednesday he was considering conducting an alternative address, either from the US Senate or some other location.