United States President Donald Trump has been criticised for two photos that was supposed to show him hard at work after falling ill with Covid-19.

Photos show Trump hard at work

The two photos, released by the White House on Oct. 3, showed the 74-year-old supposedly working at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre, where he is currently being treated.

While he was pictured wearing a blue blazer in the Presidential Suite, he was seen without it in the photo of him working in a conference room.

Criticised for "staged" photos

The two photos were soon picked apart by critics online, who accused him of staging the photos.

Jon Ostrower, editor-in-chief of aviation news site The Air Current, alleged that the two photos were taken just 10 minutes apart, judging from metadata embedded in the two wire postings by The Associated Press.

The photos released by the WH tonight of the president working at Walter Reed were taken 10 minutes apart at 5:25:59 pm and 5:35:40 pm ET Saturday, according to the EXIF data embedded in both @AP wire postings that were shared by the White House this evening. pic.twitter.com/EzeqIkGdf7

— Jon Ostrower (@jonostrower) October 4, 2020

White House reporter Andrew Feinberg also alleged that Trump "appears to be signing his name to a blank sheet of paper" in one of the photos, after zooming in to the paper.

ZOOM: @realDonaldTrump appears to be signing his name to a blank sheet of paper in this photo. pic.twitter.com/xlNX24CXn4

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) October 4, 2020

A closer look also revealed that Trump appeared to be using a Sharpie to sign his name, which looked to be similar to the one used to cross out the word "corona" to replace with "Chinese" instead, resulting in the amended term "Chinese virus".

Trump antics

Trump's daughter Ivanka, who is one of his aides, shared a picture as well, saying "nothing can stop him from working for the American people".

Nothing can stop him from working for the American people. RELENTLESS! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/2ZSat782qe

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 4, 2020

Trump later ventured out of the hospital in his motorcade the next day on Oct. 4, waving to his supporters, after hinting that he would pay them "a little surprise visit" in a short clip.

The publicity move was criticised for risking the health of the Secret Service agents riding in the same vehicle.

White House optimistic about Trump's health

Fox News reported White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as saying that the administration is "optimistic" that Trump will be able to return to the White House on Oct. 5.

The president's health has "continued to improve overnight" and he is "ready to get back to a normal working schedule", he said.

Previously, Meadows had given reporters a more pessimistic outlook of Trump's health, saying on Oct. 3 that his vitals over the last 24 hours were "very concerning", and that the next 48 hours will be "critical", Axios reported.

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Top image adapted via Andrew Feinberg/Twitter & White House/Getty Images