--- title: White House Sinkhole Appears on Lawn, Internet Jokes description: The Internet is having a field day in the wake of reports that a sinkhole has developed on the White House's North Lawn. canonical: https://time.com/5287474/white-house-sinkhole-reactions/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-22T18:40:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:53:04.404Z og:title: There's a Metaphor-Ready Sinkhole on the White House Lawn og:description: "There is no better metaphor" og:url: https://time.com/5287474/white-house-sinkhole-reactions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7140e3c31b76def6/6989312897cdff73d06b54d6/white-house-sinkhole.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: The-White-House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's a Metaphor-Ready Sinkhole on the White House Lawn twitter:description: "There is no better metaphor" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7140e3c31b76def6/6989312897cdff73d06b54d6/white-house-sinkhole.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Sinkhole Has Been Spotted on the White House Lawn and the Metaphors Write Themselves > Sponsored content. 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President Donald Trump's motorcade arrives at the White House on May 13, 2018 in Washington, D.C.Zach Gibson/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer May 22, 2018 6:40 PM UTC People are having some fun with reports that a White House [sinkhole](http://www.thedrive.com/news/19539/worker-in-pickup-truck-survives-150-foot-fall-into-massive-golf-course-sinkhole) has developed on the [North Lawn](http://time.com/5286511/us-north-korea-summit-coin/). The hole [appears](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sinkhole-appears-on-white-house-lawn/) to be just outside the office of White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley and has been roped off with caution tape and traffic cones by groundskeepers. However, according to some observers, it appears to be getting bigger. “This week I’ve been observing a sinkhole on the [@WhiteHouse](https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse) North Lawn, just outside the press briefing room, growing larger by the day,” [tweeted](https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/998919472567275520) Voice of America White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman on Tuesday. News of the sinkhole has quickly spread on Twitter, giving users an opportunity to crack jokes about the unexpected development, including Dictionary.com. “Sinkhole: A hole formed in soluble rock by the action of water,” the dictionary site wrote. “Also a sinkhole: A place into which foul matter runs.” > [](https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/998919472567275520) > [](https://twitter.com/Dictionarycom/status/998986987590901761) See some other reactions below. > [](https://twitter.com/JessicaKRoy/status/998982210790227968) > [](https://twitter.com/RufusOverYrHead/status/998968852112396288) > [](https://twitter.com/ShePlaysGuitars/status/998968436800794624) > [](https://twitter.com/Brian%5FLifeOf/status/998968235289702400) > [](https://twitter.com/Coach%5FCrash/status/998951481817563137) > [](https://twitter.com/sullivka/status/998964709230632960) > [](https://twitter.com/TigerKern/status/998971791308664833) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5287474/white-house-sinkhole-reactions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5287474/white-house-sinkhole-reactions/"},"headline":"A Sinkhole Has Been Spotted on the White House Lawn and the Metaphors Write Themselves","datePublished":"2018-05-22T18:40:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:53:04.404Z","description":"\"There is no better metaphor\"","url":"https://time.com/5287474/white-house-sinkhole-reactions/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7140e3c31b76def6/6989312897cdff73d06b54d6/white-house-sinkhole.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7140e3c31b76def6/6989312897cdff73d06b54d6/white-house-sinkhole.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The-White-House","caption":"President Donald Trump's motorcade arrives at the White House","creditText":"Zach Gibson/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5287474/white-house-sinkhole-reactions/","name":"A Sinkhole Has Been Spotted on the White House Lawn and the Metaphors Write Themselves"}}]}] ```