Claim:
Rock musician Jack White responded to the White House’s criticism of him with a statement calling the administration “petty and pathetic and thin skinned.”
Rating:
In November 2025, a pair of popular Facebook (archived) posts (archived) claimed rock musician Jack White, whose former band The White Stripes is known for the song “Seven Nation Army,” had an “exceptional response” to the White House attacking him.Â
According to the posts, the White House called White a “washed-up, has-been loser” with a “stalled career” who has been “masquerading as a real artist.” White’s response apparently highlighted that despite his frequent criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump, it wasn’t until he remarked on the decor of the Oval Office that the White House replied with insults. The posts claimed White went on to call the Trump administration “petty and pathetic and thin skinned” and said the comment about White masquerading as a real artist would be his tombstone engraving.
Similar claims appeared on various social media (archived) platforms (archived) three months earlier.
The claim was true, and the direct quotes attributed to both White and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung were accurate. The back and forth between them took place in August 2025, a few months prior to the Facebook posts about the exchange.
The exchange began Aug. 18, 2025, when White posted a photo (archived) to Instagram of Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking to each other in the Oval Office, which Trump had by then filled with gold decor. “Look at how disgusting trump has transformed the historic White House,” White wrote in the post. “It’s now a vulgar, gold leafed and gaudy, professional wrestler’s dressing room.”
In the subsequent days, The Daily Beast and The Hill reached out to the White House for comment. Cheung gave both the following statement:
Jack White is a washed up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media because he clearly has ample time on his hands due to his stalled career. It’s apparent he’s been masquerading as a real artist, because he fails to appreciate, and quite frankly disrespects, the splendor and significance of the Oval Office inside of “The People’s House.”
On Aug. 20, White responded to Cheung’s statement through a post on Instagram (archived). The Instagram post began with an image of Trump holding up a pair of golden sneakers, followed by two images of White’s written response. The rest of the images in the post were either of or related to Trump.
The written section began by quoting Cheung’s statement. After that came White’s response, which we’ve reproduced in full below:
Listen, I’m an artist and not a politician so I’m in no need to give my answer or opinion on anything if I’m not inspired or compelled, but how funny that it wasn’t me calling out trump’s blatant fascist manipulation of government, his gestapo ICE tactics, his racist remarks about Latinos, Native Americans, etc. his ridiculous “wall” construction, his attacks on the disabled, his attempted coup and mob insurrection and destruction of the sacred halls of congress, his disparaging sexist and pedophilic remarks about women, his obvious attempts at distraction about being a close personal friend of Jeffrey Epstein and his inclusion in the Epstein files, his ignorance of the dying children in Sudan, Gaza, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his lack of empathy for military veterans and those struggling with poverty, his attempts to dismantle healthcare, his obvious wimpy and pathetic kowtowing to the dictators Putin and Kim Jong Un, his nazi like rallies, his attempts to sell merchandise and products like Goya beans through the office of the President, his fake “gunshot to the ear” that he showed no medical records or photographs of, his constant, constant lying to the American people, etc. etc. etc. No, it wasn’t me calling out any of that, it was the f*****g DECOR OF THE OVAL OFFICE remarks I made that got them to respond with insults. How petty and pathetic and think skinned could this administration get? “Masquerading as a real artist”? Thank you for giving me my tombstone engraving! Well here’s my opinion, trump is masquerading as a human being.
He’s masquerading as a christian, as a leader, as a person with actual empathy. He’s been masquerading as a businessman for decades as nothing he’s involved in has prospered except by using other people’s money to find loophole after loophole and grift after grift. His staff of professional liar toadies like Steven Cheung and Karoline Leavitt have been covering up and masking his fascism as patriotism and fomenting hatred and division in this country on a daily basis. And I have “ample time on (my) hands”? That orange grifter has spent more tax payer money cheating at golf than helping ANYONE in the country. Improve. Anything. There is no progress with him, only smoke and mirrors and tax breaks for the ultra wealthy. So maga folk, enjoy your concrete paving over of the rose garden, your 200 million dollar ballroom in the White House, and your gaudy a** gold spray painted trinkets from Home Depot, cause he ain’t spending any money on helping YOU unless you fit into his white supremacist country club rich idiot agenda. Wow, he hates who you hate….good for you, be proud of yourselves, how christian of you all.
The only way you can support this conman is because you are a victim of the 2 party system and you “defend your guy no matter what he does”. No intelligent person can defend this low life fascist. This bankrupter of casinos. This failed seller of trump steaks, trump vodka, trump water, etc. This man and his goon squad have failed upwards for decades and have fleeced the American people over and over. This professional golf cheat, this grifter who has hundreds of thousands of deaths from his inaction of the pandemic on his hands, this man that the majority of the country somehow were fooled into supporting and voting into office (through the flawed electoral college) and their love of reality television stars. Being insulted by the actual White House that this particular conman leads is a badge of honor to me, because anyone who trump supports and likes is a villain who gives nothing to their fellow man, only takes what can benefit themselves. And no I’m not a Democrat either, I’m a human being raised in Detroit, I’m an artist who’s owned his own businesses like his own upholstery shop and recording label since he was 21 years old who has enough street sense to know when a 3 card monte dealer is a cheap grifter and a thief.
The Facebook posts matched White’s response as well as Cheung’s.
