U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., November 18, 2025 (REUTERS)
President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and his ongoingbeef with world leaders is bringing him down of late, according to reports. So, Intelligencer Senior Editor Margaret Hartmann says he’s taking his golden toys and going home.
“This week, Donald Trump insulted U.S. allies at a NATO summit in Turkey and admitted that his Iran war isn’t really over,” wrote Hartmann. Obviously, this is very concerning. What if all this foreign-policy drama distracts the president from Job One, i.e., Trumpifying every square inch of the White House?”
Hartmann pointed out that the president spent Wednesday night “dumping more than a dozen videos of renewed U.S. strikes on Iran to Truth Social.” But midway through this post binge, he pivoted to share an update on his latest White House renovation, complete with even more loopy golden letters.
“This is yet another indication that after running out of room for gold stuff in the Oval Office, Trump is turning his focus to the executive mansion’s exterior,” Hartmann said. “Last month, he revealed his plan to hang a golden eagle on the Truman Balcony.”
The eagle is an AI-generated mock-up, but Hartmann suggested Trump also add a giant gold sign for “The White House.”
“Otherwise, people might assume the big white building with all the columns is called something like ‘The Eagle’s Nest,’” Hartmann reasoned.
But it’s probably a nice distraction from the rekindling of a war that is sure to continue to aggravate fuel prices and doom Republicans and Trump’s agenda after November. Likewise his plummeting unpopularity is promising to deliver not only the House but possibly the Senate to Democrats later this year, unless he gets a dramatic boost or directly intervenes in the election himself.
So, Hartmann says this leaves a frustrated Trump posting misunderstood clips from old West Wing TV episodes. His most recent shows U.S. Central Command describing U.S. strikes on Iran as “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.”
“Trump seemed to dismiss this idea, as the clip showed fictional president Josiah Bartlet arguing for a “disproportional response” that lets America’s enemies know that when attacked, “we come back with total disaster!”
Later, Hartmann points out that Bartlet admitted he was wrong to make such an argument, “but it seems Trump did not watch the whole episode.”
“It seems Trump unveiling [of the new West Wing] … sign days after missing the point of a classic TV episode was a coincidence,” said Hartmann. “He just wants people to know where the real West Wing is located. Over the past eight months, similar gold signs have gone up outside the Oval Office, the Rose Garden, and Trump’s new “Presidential Walk of Fame.”
But at the very least, Hartmann argues that Trump can now “stop getting lost while commuting from his bedroom to the West Wing.”