REPORT: Oval Office Desk Removed After Discovery of Listening Devices

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Back in the White House for just over a month, President Trump has experienced a whirlwind of success.

But in the background, a certain amount of information has leaked from those pesky “anonymous sources”.

Or… is that actually where the leaks have come from?

Though the leaks coming from the Trump White House in 2025 have not been as rampant as that of his first term, the fact that there are any leaks have caused a few eyebrow raises.

Now, a report is circulating that listening devices have been found inside the Oval Office.

The reports specify that the listening devices were found inside the Resolute Desk which normally serves as the primary Oval Office desk.

Though these reports are unconfirmed, speculation has grown after President Trump confirmed that the Resolute Desk has in fact been moved “temporarily” out of the Oval Office.

In fact, even after two different stories suggested different reasons for the desk’s removal from the Oval Office, the speculation surrounding listening devices has continued.

Quite frankly, I’m not yet sure which story is true.  So here’s a synopsis of all that is happening surrounding the desk’s removal.

Stories like the one below started popping up on social media, but many like this one were deleted soon after.  (The screenshot exists because I expected this one to disappear as well — and it soon did.)

This post shows President Trump using the phone, seated at the Resolute Desk which is at the center of the speculation.

I’m using a screenshot — since almost every post with a large viewership is ultimately getting deleted:

President Trump, without meaning to, likely added to the speculation about listening devices found in the Oval Office with this post on his Truth Social.

The President posted a photo from inside the Oval Office four days ago, with the Resolute Desk nowhere to be found.

It has been replaced, temporarily according to President Trump, with the “C&O” desk — one of seven desks available for use by the President.

Here’s the full text of the President’s post on Truth Social in case the previous image is hard to read:

A President, after election, gets a choice of 1 in 7 desks. This desk, the “C&O,” which is also very well-known and was used by President George H.W. Bush and others, has been temporarily installed in the White House while the Resolute Desk is being lightly refinished—a very important job. This is a beautiful, but temporary replacement!

One post I was able to find referenced President Trump’s Truth Social post, and mentioned that maybe a possible cover story was in the works — assuming that the story of the listening devices could be true.

Meanwhile, the primary story in the media has nothing to do with listening devices.

The official story — and the true story, for all I can tell — is that President Trump is simply having the Resolute Desk refinished in the course of normal maintenance.

And besides the likely scenario of normal maintenance, there may be an alternative reason for the refinishing job on the Resolute Desk related to Elon’s young son…

Watch this clip:

Here’s details of THAT version of the story, according to a report in the New York Post:

The White House has assured the public it’s snot a permanent change.

President Trump ordered the iconic Resolute Desk removed from the Oval Office for refurbishment after Elon Musk’s 4-year-old son, X, appeared to pick his nose and rub the desk on live TV last week.

The young Musk scion and budding nasal archaeologist, whose full name is X Æ A-12, fidgeted, babbled and, at times, wandered around when he appeared in the Oval Office with his father and Trump during a joint Q&A session about the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

At one point, the tot — whose mom is pop star Grimes — wiggled his finger around in his nostril and then seemingly wiped the resulting bounty on the famous desk, first used by John F. Kennedy in 1961 and later used by presidents including Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden during their time in office.

Trump, a known germaphobe, revealed in a Truth Social post Thursday that the Resolute Desk had been temporarily replaced with the C&O desk, one of six available to the sitting president.

“This desk, the ‘C&O,’ which is also very well-known and was used by President George H.W. Bush and others, has been temporarily installed in the White House while the Resolute Desk is being lightly refinished—a very important job,” Trump wrote.

“This is a beautiful, but temporary replacement!”

That could be all there is to it; nothing at all to do with listening devices or attempts to thwart President Trump’s second term.

That is now the official story of Jack Lombardi II, who was apparently the popular X user who initially pushed the story of the supposed listening devices to go viral.

Initially quoting anonymous White House sources, Lombardi’s post went viral as X users linked the story of the Resolute Desk’s removal with Lombardi’s now-deleted post about the listening devices.

Here’s the most recent post Lombardi put out regarding the issue:

Here’s the full text of Lombardi’s post:

The claim that President Trump’s White House desk was bugged lacks credible evidence. This assertion appears to stem from a misunderstanding or misrepresentation of recent events.

On February 11, 2025, during a press conference in the Oval Office, Elon Musk’s four-year-old son, X Æ A-12, was observed picking his nose and seemingly wiping it on the Resolute Desk. In response, President Trump, known for his germaphobia, ordered the desk to be temporarily removed for light refinishing. During this period, the Resolute Desk was replaced with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway desk (C&O desk), previously used by President George H.W. Bush.

There have been no credible reports or official statements suggesting that the Resolute Desk or any other furniture in the Oval Office was bugged. The removal and replacement of the desk were solely due to concerns about cleanliness following the incident with Musk’s son.

It’s important to distinguish between concerns about hygiene and unfounded allegations of surveillance. In this case, the actions taken were related to maintaining the cleanliness of the Oval Office furniture and not due to any security or espionage issues.

USA Today also picked up the story within the last 48 hours, running a fully informative article about the history of all 7 Presidential desks available for use by the sitting President.

No mention is made of the possible listening devices either in the desk or the Oval Office.

The Resolute Desk was initially a gift from Queen Victoria in 1880 to President Rutherford Hayes, according to the USA Today article:

President Donald Trump has temporarily taken the 150-year-old Resolute Desk out of the Oval Office for refinishing.

When President Harry S. Truman first used the desk at the White House, it was brought into the Oval Office by President John F. Kennedy and became an iconic backdrop as his son, John F. Kennedy Jr., played inside the desk while his father was working.

Gifted to former President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1880, the Resolute Desk is a double pedestal partner’s desk made from oak timbers of the British Shop HMS Resolute, according to The White House Historical Association.

For many years, the desk was used on the second floor of the White House, where the presidential offices were located before the addition of the West Wing in 1902.

In 1945, the Presidential Coat-of-Arms, the seal of the U.S. president, was fitted on the desk.

Between 1948-1952, the desk was moved to the Broadcast Room on the White House’s ground floor and was used for a short period of time for radio and television broadcasts by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, according to The White House Historical Association.

Former President John F. Kennedy was the first president to use the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

When former President Lyndon B. Johnson took office in 1963, he requested another desk for the Oval Office, according to The White House Historical Association. Between 1966 and 1977, the Resolute Desk was part of a traveling exhibition before it was put on display at the Smithsonian.

Former President Jimmy Carter requested the return of the Resolute Desk in 1977, where it has remained since − except by George H.W Bush who used the C&O Desk.

Per The White House Historical Association, before its arrival to the White House, the Resolute Desk was a part of a British arctic expedition in 1852. During the expedition, the desk was abandoned and became trapped it ice. In 1855, the desk was recovered by an American whaler and Congress appropriated funding to refit the ship that the desk was on to England, as a gift to Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria reaffirmed the U.S. friendship and constructed a new version of the desk, which was then given to Hayes, according to The White House Historical Association.

Beginning with the 19th president, Rutherford B. Hayes, every president has used the Resolute Desk, except George H.W Bush, who only used it for five months before requesting the C&O, according to The White House Historical Association.

No solid evidence has been put forward or been reported on, with or without sources, to suggest that the story of the listening devices has any merit.

That said, it always piques my interest when a story suddenly explodes on the scene, is seemingly corroborated indirectly, and then suddenly disappears — with a slew of social media posts completely wiped away.

Not edited or updated; but wiped away, as if they never existed.

Notice that community note attachment.

The story was “fabricated”, according to the note.  That isn’t the same as saying the story about the listening devices was “without merit”, or “unsubstantiated”.

In fact, that is a fairly hardcore statement to say emphatically that the story was “fabricated”; which denotes a certain degree of knowledge about the origin of the story that I personally am unable to find.

Apparently, that is the story now considered to be the truth — no listening devices found, nothing sinister at all.

And that may well be the truth.

But something about this story doesn’t sit quite right with me.

Maybe it’s just my exposure to too many conspiracy theories which were ultimately proven accurate, but something about this seems like there may be more to this story than the official narrative would have us believe.

It is entirely possible that President Trump watched Elon’s young son hide a “present” on his Oval Office desk, and immediately decided it was time for a refinishing.

Or — there may have been listening devices found, and President Trump’s team is attempting to trace those devices and handle the situation a little ahead of a media storm.

At the moment, I’m not quite willing to tie a bow in this and call it done.  I will therefore add this to the DEVELOPING STORIES side of the house.

We will keep you updated as any new developments become known.



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