President Donald Trump inadvertently set off a firestorm this weekend after one Oval Office photo that went wildly off-script.
What looked like a routine snapshot meant to show him getting things done quickly turned into something else entirely once people took a closer look. Viewers started spotting strange details in the frame and the more they looked, the worse it got.
Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin made Trump the story when he shared a post apparently trying to show his boss working hard in the Oval Office over the weekend as the government shutdown dragged on.
But there was one problem. Trump was actually golfing in Palm Beach, Florida, at the exact moment Mullin posted the pictures.
He captioned the post at 11:52 am on Saturday, “Working through the weekend with President Donald J. Trump. It’s always an honor to be in the Oval Office – I never take this opportunity to serve Oklahoma for granted.”
Online critics were quick to call him out. “Liar! Trump is golfing in FL,” Threads poster Eleanor Ames proclaimed.“How can you be working with him in the Oval Office if he’s in Florida?” another Threads user pointed out.
According to White House pool reports, Trump’s motorcade left Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, at 8:35 a.m. on Nov. 8 and arrived at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach at 8:44 a.m. That’s certainly not enough time to make it back to D.C. in time to align with Mullin’s social media post timeline.
Even worse, the Oval Office meeting took place on Nov. 7, according to The Associated Press.
The embarrassment only deepened when viewers started inspecting the details in the photo and nearly everything fell apart.
Some viewers immediately noticed that Trump had his own Truth Social tweets scattered across his desk. Worse, he appeared to be signing them.
Attorney turned journalist Ron Filipkowski shared the viral post on Threads with the caption, “Most people have pointed out that Trump was golfing in Palm Beach at the exact moment Mullin posted this, but I will also note that the “work” Trump is doing here is autographing Truth Social posts that have been blown up and printed out.”
“What kind of work is this with printed out tweets?!?!?!?!” asked another under the Threads post.
View on Threads
Another gave Trump the benefit of the doubt for signing his own posts, “And presumably he heard “autograph” instead of “here’s a graph” bc what in the world is he signing that for,” said Andy sarcastically.
But the most keen observation came from an X user who zoomed in far into the background saw a bizarre photo of a man on the floor behind the resolute desk.
“While Mullin is trying to say how Trump is working so hard, his desk is covered in printed Truth Social posts and this weird ass picture behind his desk,” an X user keenly observed.
Another wondered, “who is that on floor/under desk in that photo?”
“Ah, yes, the tireless work of printing out and giving Trump color copies of his own tweets,” another posted.
Some viewers were just plain confused with comments from “What? Why? For what purpose?” to “Why are you lying, what are you trying to cover up?”
Trump was spotted playing golf on Saturday as the historic government shutdown dragged on. Trump has continued his schedule for the past month unbothered by the shutdown that began on Oct. 1, including golfing weekends in Florida and a trip overseas.
And he’s weathered intense criticism over the past weeks for his handling of the shutdown, which stretched into 40 days Sunday, the longest government closure in history, surpassing the 35-day shutdown during Trump’s first term.
The Senate finally passed a funding bill Sunday night with help from eight Democrats — technically seven, as Maine Sen. Angus King is an independent who caucuses with Democrats — who joined the GOP voting to reopen the government, according to CNN. Democrats had been holding out, demanding that a stopgap funding bill include provisions to extend subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
The Senate bill now heads to the House, which is still not in session. House Speaker Mike Johnson sent members home on Sept. 19, the day that the chamber passed a continuing resolution spending bill and sent it to the Senate.
