A widely shared video posted on Instagram Sept. 1 that captures someone tossing what looks like a black plastic bag from a second-floor White House window has generated days of speculation over the circumstances of the incident.
The White House press office told reporters Sept. 2 that work was being done in the White House while President Donald Trump was away and the object was likely a bag of material waste getting tossed.
"It was a contractor who was doing regular maintenance while the President was gone," the White House said in an email to reporters.
But the President later that day said the video was probably AI generated. “You can't open the windows,” he told reporters when asked about the video at a press conference. “You know why? They're all heavily armored and bulletproof. It's gotta be [fake], because I know every window up there."
The window appears to be in the Lincoln Sitting Room, which is adjacent to the Lincoln Bedroom on the east side of the mansion, according to a Snopes analysis. The window is on the second floor and is visible from outdoor seating at The VUE, a restaurant and bar on the roof of the Hotel Washington.
“Given the timing of when the video began circulating online, it appeared that a patron recorded it from their table on Sunday, Aug. 31,” the Snopes report says. Trump was reportedly playing golf at his Virginia golf club at the time.
It’s unclear whether the work is related to renovations the White House has been undertaking since the beginning of the year. Among other things, the White House has added gold accent pieces on interior walls throughout the mansion, replaced the rose garden with a concrete patio, added 80-foot flag poles on the grounds and completed plans for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the west side of the mansion.
The renovations are intended to make the White House look more like Mar-a-Lago, sources told People in an Aug. 27 report.
“Donald and Melania ‘would prefer to be in Palm Beach,’ so instead they're ‘bringing Mar-a-Lago to Washington,’” a social acquaintance of the Trumps told the magazine.
Umbrellas on the concrete patio, for example, have the same yellow and white stripes as the umbrellas at Mar-a-Lago. And the ballroom, while maintaining the same neoclassical design aesthetic of the White House, will share many of the features of the ballroom at Mar-a-lago, according to an analysis of the plans by The Architect’s Newspaper.
“The interior will be based on a Palladian-like structure lined with Corinthian columns and rows of Venetian windows,” the analysis says. “Inside, a coffered ceiling will be adorned with glimmering gold accents. Large chandeliers and other massive candelabras will illuminate the interiors.”
“Donald personally created much of the current decor [at Mar-a-lago] and takes pride in living there and showing it to other people," another acquaintance said in the People report.
The White House is ending public tours of the mansion starting Sept. 1. Construction begins on the ballroom this month.
