A video that captured a mysterious object being thrown out of a White House window went viral, sparking wild conspiracy theories online before competing explanations were offered by an administration official – and the president himself.
The video, posted Monday by Washingtonian Problems on TikTok, captured a person wearing white pants stepping onto the second-story windowsill before tossing a dark object, which is seen plummeting down the White House facade.
A White House official told The Independent Tuesday that the window was opened — and the bag tossed out — by “a contractor who was doing regular maintenance while the President was gone.” President Donald Trump was golfing Sunday and Monday at his club in Sterling, Virginia.
But hours later at a press conference, the president initially said he hadn’t seen the video, adding it was “probably AI-generated” because the White House windows cannot be opened.
Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy played the video for him, prompting Trump to insist: “Those windows are sealed. They’re all sealed, you can’t open them.”
As of Tuesday, the video had 2.6 million views — and was accompanied by a frenzy of conspiracy theories around what the object was, who threw the object, and what was going on inside the White House.
Some social media users noted the American flag on the White House roof was being flown at half-staff in the video, fueling concerns about Trump’s health. After days out of the public eye, the president said Sunday that he “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE.” Trump also addressed a question about his health on Tuesday, describing it as “fake news.”
It’s not immediately clear when the video was filmed, but the president ordered flags to fly half-staff through sunset Sunday in honor of the victims of the Minneapolis school shooting. Photos of the White House showed the flag at the top of the pole on Monday.
The second floor of the White House includes the president’s private residence, leading some users to speculate the tossed object stemmed from a spat between President Trump and his wife, Melania. No evidence suggests that the president and the first lady have had any disagreements.
Some also noted that the White House windows are reportedly supposed to be closed for security reasons when the president is inside. Trump was away for most of Labor Day weekend.
Trump also addressed the windows being sealed shut at his Tuesday press conference. The first lady recently complained about not getting enough fresh air in the White House, the president noted. Not only are the windows unable to be opened, but they are “heavily armored,” bulletproof, and weigh about 600 pounds each, the president said.
Others joked that the so-called “Epstein Files” might have been thrown from the window in the video. Uproar over the administration’s lack of transparency around the highly sought-after documents has plagued Trump’s second term after the Justice Department released a memo in July, stating there would be no further disclosures in the case.
The president has tried to distance himself from the case, which involves his former friend Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 awaiting his sex trafficking trial. Their friendship dissolved around the mid-2000s after Epstein “stole” young female employees from Mar-a-Lago, Trump said in July. Trump has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing in connection to the matter.
