White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's post about President Donald Trump's new Air Force One backfired this week when critics zeroed in on its shelf of fake books.
In a post on X, Leavitt shared a beaming photo of herself seated aboard the plane, a bookshelf looming behind her. The shelf surrounds a screen displaying the presidential seal. The books filling it appear to be purely decorative.
"Are those…fake books?" Vanity Fair Washington correspondent Aidan McLaughlin wrote on X.
"Of course a plane full of people who have never read a book has a bookshelf of fake books with titles like 'Library,'" wrote physician Nick Mark, whose post drew 1.2 million views.
He zoomed in on the spines. Sure enough: the books are labeled "LIBRARY."
CBS News White House correspondent Jennifer Jacobs confirmed the shelf was stocked with "decorative books."
The plane is a retrofitted Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar — a foreign government — and upgraded for $1 billion with taxpayer dollars. Critics from both parties have called the arrangement a conflict of interest.
"She misspelled '$400 million bribe solicited from Qatar,'" HuffPost senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte wrote on X.
National security journalist Marcy Wheeler called it a "Flying Bribery Palace."
Leavitt, however, called it "a truly unforgettable day."
Trump has said the plane will be transferred to his presidential library when he leaves office.