'Looks like an episode of Hoarders': Messy Mar-a-Lago pics spur onslaught of laughter
Americans found themselves playing a strange game of Where's Waldo Tuesday after shocking new photos revealed former President Donald Trump stored classified documents in haphazard containers strewn across the floor of his Florida social club.
Special Counsel Jack Smith shared the photos in his rebuttal Tuesday to Trump's dismissal motion, arguing Mar-a-Lago was just too messy for federal agents to preserve the pristine order Trump claims is critical to his case.
The photos swiftly made their way to social media where stunned viewers found stacked among the secret documents at the heart of his Florida federal court case a Hermes box, crates of Diet Coke and a picture of former President Donald Trump with eagle wing horns.
"I would expect my kids to keep better care of their schoolwork," replied X user Shannon Snow, "and this is how the former president took care of national secrets????"
Smith argued Monday the pictures prove prosecutors' admitted misclassification mistake does not constitute evidence tampering, as the former president has suggested, because they were stored among such clutter.
"Trump personally chose to keep documents containing some of the nation’s most highly guarded secrets in cardboard boxes," Smith writes.
"At the end of his presidency, he took his cluttered collection of keepsakes to Mar-a-Lago...After they landed in stacks in the storage room, several boxes fell and splayed their contents on the floor."
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That's not all keen-eyed viewers found.
"In a newly released photo from Mar-a-Lago: a box that held classified documents, some Trump campaign hats, a Hermes box and a bunch of Diet Coke," replied Washington Post columnist Philip Bump.
"What," replied Ian Larkin. "No ketchup?"
"Probably not all that important, but which of his staff retrieves diet coke from this location?" X user @SimplySimplye wanted to know.
X user @Keing_unfug found evidence worth reporting to the interior design police, writing, "That carpet alone should get him arrested."
"Trump is a slob," @cincity631 replied. "His 'beautiful' life is diet coke stashed on the floor of some room filled with c---. Looks like an episode of Hoarders after a couple days of effort."
An odd portrait of the former president caught the eye of @DLRotoff, who replied, "How iconic that the documents were stored next to a crate of Diet Coke and a cheesy picture of djt’s face framed in eagle’s wings & an image the American flag."
"Does he really think this is valuable?" X user Liz hair wanted to know of the portrait.
Michael Beschloss found a box of "rumpled clothes."
"Gee," replied X user Steve Miller, "and I thought the boxes of classified documents stacked in one of the bathrooms at MAL was bad."
"You know what these pictures prove definitively?" concluded X user Jen. "Mar-a-Lago is a dump."