What you need to know
President Donald Trump’s administration has launched a website marking the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, claiming that Democrats “staged a real insurrection” by ultimately certifying former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
The website, which belongs to the White House domain and is promoted by the government’s official social media accounts, refers to the rioters as “peaceful patriotic protesters.” The paper argues that many of the Democrats targeted by the riot “stunningly subvert reality” by calling the riot an attempted coup.
The Honorable Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is featured prominently at the top of the site, along with members of the House Select Committee on Insurrection. The website charges that the commission “fabricated the story of the ‘insurrection’ and produced a scripted television spectacle to shift all responsibility onto President Trump.”
In a speech on Tuesday, January 6, Mr. Trump claimed that the media had not accurately reported what he said five years ago and sought to shift the blame to Ms. Pelosi.
“You know how there’s never been any talk of walking or marching to the Capitol peacefully and patriotically in the news?” Trump said at the Kennedy Center, according to Politico. “You know they didn’t report it? This is a scandal.”
He went on to claim, “They never reported that Nancy Pelosi was provided with 10,000 soldiers or the National Guard or whatever she wanted.”
Pelosi’s spokesman, Ian Crager, said in a statement to Politico that “continued attempts to whitewash a deadly riot are shameful, unpatriotic, and pathetic.”
Samuel Corum/Getty
Never miss a news. Sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to human interest stories.
“Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed time and time again that Speaker Pelosi did not plan to assassinate herself on January 6,” Crager continued. “Cherry-picked, out-of-context clips do not change the fact that the Speaker of the House is not in charge of security at the Capitol, whether it’s January 6th or any other day of the week.”
The site accuses the government of committing violent acts against Capitol Police officers who protected members of Congress. The site went on to criticize former Vice President Mike Pence’s certification of Biden’s victory as “despicable and sabotage.” The site’s timeline then claims that 2020 is “considered the largest election theft in U.S. history due to widespread fraud that was deliberately ignored by courts, officials, and the media.”
The administration also lists members of the pro-Trump mob who died during or related to the riot, but does not mention that nearly 140 police officers were injured by weapons on the same day. The New York Times also notes that the timeline does not mention any police officers who died in the aftermath, even claiming that “zero police officers lost their lives.”
Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/Light Rocket via Getty
The site does not mention Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after being pepper-sprayed the day after the riot. Four other police officers died by suicide.
“Mr. Trump recognizes that he is not shaking January 6th,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, whose face is listed on the site as a member of the campaign committee, told The Hill on Tuesday. “The fact that they have to set up a little propaganda site on the White House web shows how worried they are about this situation.”
Hours after President Trump’s second term began in January 2025, one of his first official acts was to pardon all 1,600 people charged in connection with the riot.
