Trump’s Post Announcing Shiny New ‘Golden Gift’ for White House Met with Mockery: ‘How F*cking Tacky’

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

President Donald Trump announced a shiny new “Golden Gift” for the White House Monday evening — a giant golden eagle sculpture that swiftly drew online mockery.

The president’s love of gold decor has been well-documented for decades, from the gold decor on nearly every surface at his residences at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida and Trump Tower in Manhattan to his significant changes to the White House itself, including the addition of numerous gold accents in the Oval Office and a renovation to the Lincoln Bathroom that added marble and yet more gold fixtures.

Monday evening, Trump shared a photo on his Truth Social account of what he said was “A Golden Gift to the White House for its 250th Birthday Year!”

The photo showed a large shiny golden sculpture of an eagle hanging from the White House’s Truman balcony. The sculpture also had an arc of eleven stars (the original U.S. flag had thirteen stars for the thirteen colonies and still has thirteen stripes to reflect that history) and a shield with red and blue accents.

Screenshot via Truth Social.

The official White House account shared the photo as well.

It should perhaps be noted that this July 4th will not be the White House’s 250th birthday, but the country’s.

The White House is 225 years old. In 1800, America’s second president, John Adams, was the first to occupy the “President’s House” at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue after the nation’s capital was moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. The White House was burned down in 1814 by the British during the War of 1812 and had to be nearly entirely rebuilt, a process that took several years, so the building is arguably even younger.

It is not known what person, company, or organization was behind the “Golden Gift.” It is also not yet known if the sculpture has even been finished or even created. Several posts said the image was mostly or completely AI-generated. D.C.-based freelance photographer Andrew Leyden posted several photos of the balcony showing there was no golden eagle sculpture mounted there.

The photo of the new golden eagle was shared on social media, garnering responses that mostly ranged from critical to mockery. Some highlighted the historical inaccuracies of Trump’s post; many dissed the aesthetics.

Peter York, style columnist and author of Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World’s Most Colorful Despots, has dubbed Trump’s style “dictator chic,” and multiple commenters made comparisons to eagle sculptures displayed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

To be fair, the eagle has been a popular symbol for many countries and militaries throughout history, besides the U.S. and the Third Reich, for example, the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, Poland, Romania, Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grande Armée, numerous English coats of arms, etc. Readers may judge for themselves if the comparison is fair.

A sampling of reactions is below.

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