Kathy Griffin reshares controversial Trump severed head photo minutes after president falsely claims election victory

Kathy Griffin has reshared her controversial Donald Trump severed head photo as results slowly come in for the US election.

The picture, which was first published in 2017, sees a stony-faced Griffin holding an effigy of Trump’s decapitated, bloodied head.

The comedian was fired from CNN after the stunt provoked an angry response from Trump supporters, with Griffin apologising at the time, saying that she understood why the image offended people and that she would be taking it down.

However, as votes were being counted across the United States, at 2:43am (ET), Griffin reshared the photo to her Twitter feed without comment. At the time of writing, it has been liked more than 22,000 times.

Griffin shared the picture just minutes after Trump falsely claimed that he had won the election, saying that he is poised to ask the Supreme Court to halt all vote-counting even as ballots remain untallied.

Taken by photographer Tyler Shields, who is known for his “edgy, shocking” work, the photo of Griffin carrying Trump’s head was widely condemned when it was first published.

In response, Trump tweeted: “Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11-year-old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”

Griffin later claimed that she was investigated by the FBI and placed on the No Fly List over the stunt.

Despite initially apologising for the original Trump beheading photo, Griffin later retracted her apology and has remained a staunch critic of the president.

In May, she attacked Trump again by joking that the president should inject himself with air, leading people to accuse her of threatening him once more.

You can follow The Independent’s US election live blog here.

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