After a video went viral showing what looked like trash bags being thrown out of a White House window, President Donald Trump and his press team gave very different explanations about what happened.
The video, about a minute and a half long, was shared widely on X on Monday, Sept. 1. It shows an open second-floor window at the White House, where several objects were tossed onto the lawn.
Adam Cochran, who calls himself an “independent investigative journalist” on X, shared the clip with his own theory.
“People don’t realize this is strange because after 9/11, the windows were all replaced with sealed bulletproof windows, including in the residence,” he wrote. “To throw something out the window means taking the window out of the frame itself.”
He added that contractors aren’t allowed in the residence while the president is staying there, suggesting Trump wasn’t at the White House at the time.
A spokesperson for the Trump administration told PEOPLE on Tuesday, Sept. 2, that the video showed a contractor doing routine maintenance while the president was away. Trump reportedly spent Monday afternoon at his Virginia golf club.
But hours later, during a press conference in the Oval Office, Trump gave a different explanation. He said the video was fake.
“That’s probably AI-generated. Actually, you can’t open the windows. You know why? They’re all heavily armored and bulletproof,” Trump said. “It’s gotta be [fake], because I know every window up there.”
He explained that even his wife, Melania, has complained about the windows not opening. “Number one, they’re sealed, and number two, each window weighs about 600 pounds,” he added.
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Trump also said he would never throw anything out a White House window because of the many cameras around the property. He then joked about artificial intelligence: “If something happens really bad, just blame AI.”
Monday also marked the start of a pause on White House tours as construction began on Trump’s new ballroom project.
The 90,000-square-foot addition, planned for the East Wing, will seat about 650 people and cost an estimated $200 million. According to the White House, Trump and other private donors are paying for it.
A source in Florida told PEOPLE that Trump and First Lady Melania are redesigning parts of the White House to feel more like their Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach.
Along with the new ballroom, the Rose Garden lawn has been replaced with a cement patio, and gold details and Trump-themed art have been added throughout the building.
The source said the couple would prefer to be in Palm Beach, so they are making the White House remind them of Mar-a-Lago. “That way, when they aren’t in Palm Beach they are there in the mind,” the source explained.
