President Donald Trump sat at the center of a long White House table, flanked by oil and gas executives and members of his administration, prepared to spotlight a deal he clearly wanted to frame as consequential.
The meeting followed his announcement that Venezuela would “turn over” as many as 50 million barrels of oil, with American companies expected to rebuild the country’s oil infrastructure using private funds. On paper, the gathering was meant to project leverage, momentum, and control.
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Instead, it became something else entirely.
As the POTUS delivered remarks on Friday, Jan. 9, a sharp, unexpected sound cut through the room. It was loud enough to be caught on video and distinct enough to prompt reactions from viewers later watching a clip from one narrow camera C-SPAN angle featured on social media. What made the moment linger wasn’t the noise itself, but Trump’s response — or lack of one.
He didn’t pause, glance around, or acknowledge anything unusual. He simply kept talking, as though nothing had happened, allowing the meeting to continue uninterrupted.
That silence ultimately did more than any reaction could have. The clip quickly shifted reactions from consideration of a policy moment to replay fodder, and the purpose of the meeting faded as viewers fixated on the unanswered question of what had interrupted the president mid-sentence. One puerile theory soon began to dominate timelines.
Once the video hit social media, the commentary was swift and relentless.
One viewer wrote, “What was that sound?? Did he sh— himself?? seriously!”
Another confidently declared, “That’s a fart!!” while someone else added, “He doesn’t miss a beat. Hopefully the diaper got it all.”
Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the interruption only amplified the guessing game, turning a routine executive meeting into a viral spectacle, although there is a mundane explanation for the source of the noise: the sound of a chair scraping against the tiled floor of the White House East Room.
A wider camera angle of the meeting clearly shows Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum — seated two places to Trump’s right — scooting forward in his chair at the exact moment of the noise that sparked the reactions on Threads. But this broader view did not figure into the blinkered responses on the social media thread.
The episode also reopened a familiar lane of public jokes that have followed Trump beyond the White House.
Sunny Hostin leaned into the moment in 2024 during Trump’s hush-money trial, where he faced 34 felony counts tied to a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Speaking during a televised discussion, Hostin reported claims that he had been “farting up a storm in court,” a remark that quickly spread online and became shorthand for critics dissecting his courtroom demeanor.
‘The View’ Host Sunny Hostin Rips Trump For Farting Up A Storm in Court https://t.co/RUtgpjhe1P pic.twitter.com/uXxC1FTRip
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The reference resurfaced as viewers connected the dots between past jokes and the latest clip.
Late-night television has long played a role in keeping those jokes alive. Jimmy Kimmel once devoted a monologue to claims that Trump had been passing gas, framing it as yet another example of how even serious moments surrounding the former president tend to drift into absurdity.
The jokes arrived complete with hashtags, including #OdorInTheCourt and #YouHaveTheRightToBeSilentButDeadly, ensuring the gag lived far beyond the broadcast.
Online chatter didn’t start there.
For years, rumors have followed Donald Trump, with claims that some world leaders complained about his smell and old whispers resurfacing that he wore adult diapers. None of it was ever confirmed or addressed by Trump. But online, repetition has done the work, turning rumor into running joke and internet shorthand.
After the internet got through with the clip, the oil executives, Venezuela, and the policy stakes had faded into the background.
What stuck was the image of a president plowing ahead as the internet replayed the moment on a loop, hunting for an explanation he never gave. In the end, it wasn’t the sound that hijacked the message, but Trump’s refusal to acknowledge it — once again letting a minor moment overpower the narrative he meant to control.
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