Things took a very entertaining turn during an otherwise important but dry and routine meeting on Tuesday, October 21, when he called out a reporter at the White House for bumping dangerously close to a very valuable antique mirror that was in the room, warning the reporter that it couldn’t be broken.
For reference, the meeting in which the incident occurred was a diplomatic event between President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the White House’s Cabinet Room. The two leaders were, during the meeting, formalizing a hugely important agreement regarding critical minerals and rare earths, both of which are critical to the modern economy and over which the People’s Republic of China currently has a near-stranglehold.
Particularly, the matter is important because the PRC has indicated that it will stop selling rare earth minerals to the American military-industrial complex, which could effectively block America from producing most of the high-tech weapons on which it relies, as those minerals are immensely critical to electronics production.
So, the deal with the Australians could help ameliorate that issue. But the meeting, while important, was somewhat dry, and took a welcome turn toward the entertaining when a camera operator let his bulky equipment get dangerously close to an antique mirror in the cabinet room, sparking a sharp reproval from the president.
President Trump, seeing the camera operator get close to the equipment, snapped, “You better watch that. You’re not allowed to break that — that mirror’s 400 years old! A camera just hit that mirror.” Nervous laughter filled the room and, Trump further exclaimed, very entertainingly, “ay-yi-yi!”
Moments later, as the chuckles and laughter filled the room, the president added, commenting on what had happened, “I just moved it up here, special from the vaults, and the first thing that happens — a camera hits it. Hard to believe isn’t it? Hard to believe, but these are the problems in life.”
Watch the moment here:
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President Trump, commenting on the rare earths matter in a post on Truth Social, said, “It has just been learned that China has taken an extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade in sending an extremely hostile letter to the World, stating that they were going to, effective November 1st, 2025, impose large scale Export Controls on virtually every product they make, and some not even made by them. This affects ALL Countries, without exception, and was obviously a plan devised by them years ago. It is absolutely unheard of in International Trade, and a moral disgrace in dealing with other Nations.”
He added, “Based on the fact that China has taken this unprecedented position, and speaking only for the U.S.A., and not other Nations who were similarly threatened, starting November 1st, 2025 (or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China), the United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying.”
Describing yet further how America would respond, he then noted, “Also on November 1st, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software. It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded videos