{"id":1152,"date":"2026-07-07T13:35:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T08:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1152"},"modified":"2026-07-07T13:35:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T08:35:05","slug":"trump-reportedly-told-white-house-guests-to-take-swag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1152","title":{"rendered":"Trump Reportedly Told White House Guests to Take Swag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<div id=\"attachment_5740343\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5740343\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5740343\" src=\"https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26062665473471-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Merz and Trump\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26062665473471-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26062665473471-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26062665473471-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26062665473471-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26062665473471-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26062665473471-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26062665473471-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5740343\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>President<strong> Donald Trump<\/strong> reportedly invited a German delegation to take various items from a room in the White House, saying they could be sold for \u201cthousands of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/europe\/european-rupture-with-america-e3a9bb3c\">piece<\/a> published by <em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em> on Sunday, the paper described a previously unreported meeting of European heads of government back in January, after Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/national-security\/a-piece-of-ice-for-world-protection-trump-demands-europe-cut-deal-on-greenland-cc1014f6?mod=article_inline\">reiterated<\/a> his desire to acquire Greenland, the autonomous North Atlantic and Arctic Circle territory from Denmark.<\/p>\n<p>Trump insisted that the U.S. must have Greenland for national security purposes, even though the U.S. maintains a military base on the island and \u2013 under an agreement with Greenland \u2013 can increase the troop presence there. However, Trump has indicated he wants Greenland to become a U.S. territory. European leaders were so concerned about the president\u2019s designs on Greenland that they convened a meeting in January, where French President <strong>Emmanuel Macron<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/trump\/no-going-back-france-was-reportedly-prepared-for-a-shooting-war-if-trump-moved-on-greenland\/\">declared<\/a>, \u201cWe are drawing a line here.\u201d As Macron spoke, he had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/macron-sends-troops-to-greenland-as-trump-ramps-up-pressure-already-on-their-way\/\">deployed<\/a> French troops to Greenland to engage in joint military exercises with Denmark, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden.<\/p>\n<p>In March, less than two months after the meeting of European leaders, German Chancellor<strong> Friedrich Merz<\/strong> visited Trump at the White House. According to an official cited by the <em>Journal<\/em>, Merz was surprised to see Trump acting \u201cnormal,\u201d but the trip soon took a turn for the weird. Trump led Merz and the German contingent to a room adjacent to the Oval Office, which Trump called \u201cthe Lewinsky room,\u201d where former President <strong>Bill Clinton<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/clip\/white-house-event\/user-clip-bill-clinton-i-did-not-have-sexual-relations-with-that-woman-monica-lewinsky\/5194759\">did <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">not<\/span> have sexual relations with that woman<\/a>. The room contained \u201cMAGA memorabilia and Florsheim shoes. Trump invited his guests to help themselves:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>When Merz visited, he was surprised to find Trump \u201cnormal,\u201d an official later said. Trump listened, asked questions, seemed open to new information and knowledgeable about some topics\u2014though surprisingly unaware of others, including the military situation in Ukraine. During their chat, Trump told Merz he had something to show him, and walked the chancellor of Germany into a small study off the Oval Office. It was, Trump announced, \u201cthe Lewinsky room\u201d and he had filled it with MAGA memorabilia, including red hats and boxes of Florsheim dress shoes. \u201cJust grab whatever you want,\u201d a congenial Trump told his German guests, adding that their wives could sell the swag for \u201cthousands of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u2013<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein President Donald Trump reportedly invited a German delegation to take various items from a room in the White House, saying they could be sold for \u201cthousands of dollars.\u201d In a piece published by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, the paper described a previously unreported meeting of European heads of government back&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26062665473471-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}