Caught! Donald Trump Mistakes Folded U.S. Flag for Cozy Blanket in Awkward Moment

President Donald Trump embarrassingly mistook a folded American flag for a cozy blanket during the signing of the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act on Friday, September 5.

The 79-year-old was given the plastic-wrapped blanket by Representative John Rose (R-Tenn) in the Oval Office, where reporters captured the awkward moment.

As Rose, who introduced the legislative act signed by Trump, gave the president the blanket, he said, “I’d like to leave you with this gift from a constituent back in Tennessee.”

Trump responded, “Oh, I could use that at night,” appearing to believe it was intended for snuggles. With laughter, Rose kindly explained, “It’s an American flag.” To which the president said, “It’s very nice. I like that. Thank you very much.”

Trump’s confusion comes after he shut down rumors of him being dead after failing to appear in the public eye for several days before Labor Day weekend.

“Really? I haven’t heard that,” he said to reporters on September 2 after he was asked if he knew about the viral rumor.

Trump continued, “It’s crazy. Last week I did numerous news conferences, and they went very well, like this is going well. And then I didn’t do anything for two days and they said, ‘There might be something wrong with him.’ [Joe] Biden wouldn’t do them for months, you wouldn’t see him, and they never said there was anything wrong with him. And we know he wasn’t in the greatest shape.”

When Trump took back charge of his presidential duties after a quick respite, he made efforts to hide his notoriously bruised hand from photojournalists — a move intended to protect speculation of his declining health after revealing his CVI diagnosis in July.

The president primarily kept his hands beneath the State Dining Room table on Thursday, September 4, when he was joined by influential tech executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI chief Sam Altman and more.

He also told reporters during the meeting that he was thankful for those who supported him during the time he was presumed to be dead.

“They made a couple of bad predictions. That wasn’t good,” he said. “I’ve never had that feeling before,” referring to the thought of the general public declaring that he, the president of the United States, had died.

“I went to an event and people were coming up to me saying, ‘You’re still here.’ And I thought, ‘What do they mean by that?’” he added. “I hadn’t heard about this. Anyway, the press has been great in terms of this industry, and they understand the importance of it.”