Fact Check: Is the photo showing US flag touching the ground at White House real?

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump returned to the White House on Sunday, November 16, after spending the weekend at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. During his return, a picture of the POTUS went viral across the internet.

The viral picture appeared to show a US flag lying on the ground, which would constitute a breach of the US Flag Code. The code states that the flag should "never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise." But did something like this actually take place? Let us find out below.

Claim: US flag touched the ground at White House

The picture of the flag went viral across several social media platforms.

An X user shared the picture and captioned it, "This should win a Pulitzer. A visibly defeated and worn Trump, with the American flag lying on the ground in the background. A symbol of his downfall, and the disgrace he has brought the American people."

Similarly, a Facebook page shared the same picture and wrote, "The American flag at the White House is lying on the ground. A fitting metaphor for how little Donald Trump cares about this country."

A Reddit post also read, "President Trump walking past the flag at the Whitehouse which has fallen to the ground."

Fact Check: No confirmation if the flag touched the ground

The photos that went viral are real, but they were taken at an angle that does not confirm whether the flag actually touched the ground, Snopes reported.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle called the claim "fake news" in an email statement to the fact-checking outlet.

"Due to the high winds on Sunday evening in the Washington, DC area, the flag was lowered into a special container out of an abundance of caution during the Marine One landing," he said. However, the statement still contradicts the flag code, because the "special container" would still have been beneath the flag, as noted by Snopes.

Meanwhile, official press photographs of President Donald Trump at the White House confirmed the snapshots as legitimate images, credited to photographer Mandel Ngan. 

Trump says he lost his voice trying to settle a trade agreement

President Donald Trump on Monday, November 17, said his hoarse voice was the result of "shouting" at foreign officials during a trade dispute.

However, he insisted he was "feeling great" despite his strained vocal cords. Reporters noticed his hoarseness during a meeting of the White House FIFA World Cup 2026 task force. During an interaction with reporters at the White House, one asked Trump about his voice, and the POTUS said, "I feel great, I was shouting at people, because they were stupid about something having to do with trade in a country, and I straightened that out."

Trump said a foreign government tried to revisit the terms of a trade agreement, prompting a heated exchange. "But I blew my stack at these people," he added.

Trump continued, "A country wanted to renegotiate the terms of their trade deal, and I wasn’t happy about it."