The Trump administration launched a new website claiming, without basis, that the violence on January 6, 2021, was instigated by law enforcement and the then-president of the House of Representatives.
The White House on Tuesday released a complete restatement of the historical record of January 6, 2021, praising the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol five years ago as “peaceful protesters” who were provoked by law enforcement.
The baseless claim that the violence of January 6, 2021 was instigated by law enforcement and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reinterprets the attackers as the victims of that day and portrays President Donald Trump as a hero for granting comprehensive pardons to nearly 1,600 people accused in connection with the deadly attack.
The White House page on the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, as seen on January 6, 2026. White House
Trump has the story of January 6, when thousands of his supporters violently invaded the Capitol in hopes of stopping Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. But the new site notably goes further than Trump’s previous rhetoric, giving an official White House platform to his long-debunked claims.
One of the central themes of the new site is Trump’s long-standing — but completely false — claim that the 2020 election was stolen. His repeated lies about mass voter fraud were the reason he and his supporters wanted to stop Congress from certifying the results on January 6th.
White House communications director Steven Cheung suggested in one that the page was a “trap” to provoke outrage in the media. CNN, like the Trump administration, is using the official White House website to provoke its opponents.
Selective timeline
A selective “timeline” on the site characterizes Trump’s Ellipse speech as having “detailed evidence of election fraud,” urging the crowd to march to the Capitol to protest peacefully and show “strength and determination.” His allegations of fraud were weeks before January 6, and the timeline omits parts of the speech in which Trump twice said his supporters should “fight with all their might.”
The timeline ignores details of protesters breaking windows to enter the Capitol and attacking police officers. Instead, it states that the rally that day was “orderly and lively, with flags, signs and chants in support of President Trump.”
The website baselessly accused the US Capitol Police of having “deliberately escalated tensions” that day, when crowds of Trump supporters surrounded the complex. He said that the officers’ “provocative tactics”, such as firing tear gas into the crowd, “turned a peaceful demonstration into chaos”, despite there being extensive footage showing the protesters attacking the police first.
CNN has contacted the US Capitol Police for comment.
Furthermore, the White House stated that Trump supporters who died outside the Capitol of — a heart attack and a stroke — were “killed” that day.
The website includes the disputed claim that “zero law enforcement officers have lost their lives.”
The US Capitol Police officer died of a stroke the day after he was defending the Capitol, and the Washington coroner said that “everything that happened” on January 6th influenced his death. Others following the attack on the Capitol committed suicide in the following months. (The White House website also fails to mention that another 140 agents remained that day, some requiring hospitalization, and many later suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.)
Blame Pence and Pelosi
The site defends Trump’s controversial claim that then-Vice President Mike Pence “had the opportunity to return contested voter lists to state legislatures for review and decertification” during the joint session of Congress that day, but chose not to do so “in an act of cowardice and sabotage.”
legal scholars from around the world and many of Trump’s aides and advisors, including the Secretary of State, stated that it would have been blatantly unconstitutional for the then-vice president to refuse to certify the 2020 election.
In presenting Pelosi, then the Democratic leader of the House, as the main villain of January 6, the White House website latched onto comments she made in an HBO documentary, where she said, regarding security at the Capitol: “I take responsibility for not having prepared you for more.”
“They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having prepared them for more,” Pelosi said in the excerpt.
This observation does not prove Trump’s oft-repeated claim that Pelosi refused his supposed offer of an early deployment of 10,000 National Guard troops. Pelosi has always denied receiving such an offer, and the president — not the speaker of the House — is in charge of the D.C. National Guard.
“January 6 was not an aberration nor was it spontaneous. It was the culmination of a sustained attack on the truth, the rule of law and one of the most sacred principles of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power,” said Pelosi, in which she classified January 6 as an “attempted coup” incited by Trump to reverse the 2020 elections.
The White House website also portrays Trump as a victim who was subsequently “silenced” on social media platforms and shunned by financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.
The White House argues that Trump “corrected a historic injustice” to people accused or convicted in the attack on the Capitol. On his first day in office last year, Trump pardoned nearly all 1,600 accused protesters and commuted the sentences of leaders of right-wing extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
The site classifies all 1,600 pardon recipients as “patriotic Americans.” This group includes members of far-right militias, people convicted of attacking police officers, alleged and others who
*Daniel Dale and Annie Grayer contributed to this article
