President Trump’s latest golden brainwave has a glaring historical detail with potentially ugly connotations.
Trump, who has spent his second term bulldozing the East Wing to build a vanity ballroom while layering gold accents throughout the White House’s interior and exterior, posted what appeared to be an AI-generated image Monday night of a golden eagle attached to the Truman Balcony.
“A Golden Gift to the White House for its 250th Birthday Year!” the 80-year-old wrote on Truth Social, seemingly confusing America’s 250th anniversary, which marks the 1776 Declaration of Independence, with the White House itself, which was built in 1792.
The caption wasn’t the only error. The shield in the golden eagle image carries just 11 stars, rather than the 13 that should represent the original colonies.
The post was shared by official White House social media channels before drawing sharp criticism from former Republican operative Steve Schmidt. “This is grotesque and un-American. 11 stars represents the Confederate States of America, not the United States of America,” Schmidt wrote on X, noting that 11 Southern states ultimately formed the Confederacy after the Civil War began: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
There is no evidence that Trump or the White House intended the 11 stars as a Confederate reference, and the discrepancy could simply reflect an error in the AI-generated image.
But the moment lands amid a broader pattern. The Trump administration has actively worked to preserve and restore Confederate monuments, most notably overseeing the refurbishment and reinstallation of a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike in Washington, D.C., last October.
The statue, the only memorial to a Confederate general in the nation’s capital, had been toppled and burned by protesters on Juneteenth in 2020, amid nationwide demonstrations following the police killing of George Floyd that ultimately led to the removal of more than 300 Confederate monuments across the country.
The Pike restoration was carried out by the National Park Service, now under Trump administration leadership. The agency has separately faced criticism for scrubbing or editing content related to slavery, women, African Americans, and LGBTQ+ history.
It removed references to transgender people from its Stonewall National Monument webpage in February, before restoring pages on Harriet Tubman and a Black Medal of Honor recipient following public backlash. The agency has also faced scrutiny for directing park staff to review gift shop merchandise for content deemed “anti-American.”
The administration has additionally reversed earlier efforts to rename U.S. military bases that had previously honored Confederate figures.
The White House has been contacted for comment on Trump’s post.
