“Ooh, you better watch that – watch that. You’re not allowed to break that. That mirror is 400 years old,” President Donald Trump told a media camera crew this Monday during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The heads of state were meeting to sign a rare earth and critical minerals deal in the White House Cabinet Room. Trump revealed this July that he had overseen redecoration of the room where he frequently holds meetings, referring to it as a “sacred room,” in a video shared by Forbes Breaking News.
Trump explained that the room didn’t have much artwork in it when he took office earlier this year, and that the pictures that were up were “not very good ones.” So, he went into the White House collection to select portraits of former presidents, including Andrew Jackson, James Polk, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Washington and John Quincy Adams, the first occupant of the White House. He said some items have been in the White House vaults for more than a century.
“I actually spent a lot of time in the vaults,” the president said. “The vaults are where we have a lot of great pictures and artwork. I picked it all myself and I’m very proud of it.”
Regarding the mirror, Trump said: “The mirror was down in the vaults also, and I said ‘Where is this from?’ – and it’s a very old, very storied mirror.”
At 400 years old, the mirror would pre-date the nation itself by around 150 years. Per information provided by the Library of Congress, King Charles I of England declared Virginia, the Bermuda Islands, and New England to be royal colonies directly dependent upon the crown of back in 1625. Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America, was founded just 18 years before, according to the National Park Service.
A 2023 article on the history of mirrors published by Lapham’s Quarterly also noted that Venice, Italy, had a monopoly on mirror production until a treasurer to King Louis XIV of France secretly obtained the Venetian technique in 1664. Until then, mirrors (made by coating glass with an alloy of tin and mercury) were a “highly sought-after luxury good,” by European kings and queens, the article explained.
As Trump stared at the mirror with a look of concern Monday while the news crews adjusted their cameras, laughter broke out in the room.
“That camera just hit the mirror,” he continued. “Ay, ay, ay. I just moved it up here special from the vaults, and first thing that happens, the camera hits it. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Hard to believe. But, these are the problems in life.”
After the meeting, footage of the interaction went viral on social media, HuffPost reported. While Trump supporters “accused the ‘fake news’ press of being disrespectful,” critics “mocked Trump’s reaction as over-the-top,” said the outlet.
“Some also noted the irony that the incident came the same day demolition crews began tearing down part of the East Wing to make room for a $250 million ballroom,” it added.
People magazine said other changes Trump has made at the White House include other changes breaking with White House precedent by moving former President Barack Obama’s official portrait from the Grand Foyer to the Grand Staircase, “which is obstructed from public view, making the portrait effectively hidden,” in August. He also added his own framed mugshot near other presidential portraits, People said.
When he was discussing changes to the Cabinet Room over the summer, Trump mentioned that he was considering adding gold leaf to parts of the room. During his long career in real estate development, Trump became associated with gold décor, and his recent changes to the Oval Office that also went viral on social media this year have continued the tradition.