A very strange video appearing to show large objects being thrown out of a window at the White House went viral over Labor Day weekend. President Donald Trump was asked about it during a press conference on Tuesday, and he insisted it must be AI. Curiously, White House staff told Time magazine it was just regular maintenance.
The video appears to have been first posted to Instagram on Aug. 31 by an account called WashingtonianProbs.
“One of our community members noticed some things being thrown out of one of The White House’s windows today. Doing some deep Sunday cleaning?” the caption explains, noting the video was submitted anonymously.
The video got enormous pick-up on other sites, including X, Bluesky, Threads, and TikTok. And it came during a weekend when Americans were already wondering about President Trump’s health. Trump’s right hand has been black in recent weeks, and his lack of public appearances over the weekend led to speculation about whether he was on his deathbed.
“No, that’s probably AI-generated”
But Trump held a press conference Tuesday afternoon to announce that the U.S. Space Command headquarters is moving from Colorado to Alabama. And when he took questions, reporter Peter Doocy from Fox News asked him about the objects being tossed out of the window at the White House.
“There’s a video that is circulating online now of the White House, where a window is open to the residents upstairs, and somebody is throwing a big bag out the window. Have you seen this?”
Trump responded, “No, that’s probably AI-generated. Actually, you can’t open the windows. You know why? They’re all heavily armored and bulletproof.” Doocy asked if it was a “fake video.”
“It’s got to be because I know every window up there,” Trump answered. He went on to mention that there are “cameras all over the place” and that First Lady Melania Trump has actually complained about the fact that she can’t open windows at the residence to get some fresh air.
Trump asked Doocy more about the video, and the reporter walked over to show him what it looked like on his phone. The president insisted “those windows are sealed” a couple of times, claiming that nobody can open them.
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