--- title: Donald Trump Speaks in Front of a Doctored Presidential Seal description: Speaking at a D.C. hotel, Trump stood before a doctored presidential seal that included a Russian symbol and golf clubs canonical: https://time.com/5634675/trump-turning-point-russia-golf/ author: Hillary Leung article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-25T09:49:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:56:49.447Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Speaks in Front of Doctored Presidential Seal og:description: The seal was altered to include a Russian symbol and golf clubs og:url: https://time.com/5634675/trump-turning-point-russia-golf/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt830ab4d037e01d72/698a00677cdbacff91d610b0/trump-seal.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: trump-seal.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Speaks in Front of Doctored Presidential Seal twitter:description: The seal was altered to include a Russian symbol and golf clubs twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt830ab4d037e01d72/698a00677cdbacff91d610b0/trump-seal.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Gave a Speech Next to a Presidential Seal Doctored to Resemble a Russian Symbol > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Hillary Leung](https://time.com/author/hillary-leung/) ## Hillary Leung Jul 25, 2019 9:49 AM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks during a Turning Point USA conference in Washington, D.C., on July 23, 2019. President Donald Trump speaks during a Turning Point USA conference in Washington, D.C., on July 23, 2019.Chris Kleponis—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Hillary Leung](https://time.com/author/hillary-leung/) ## Hillary Leung Jul 25, 2019 9:49 AM UTC President Donald Trump appeared to be in his element Tuesday night: In a conference room in a five-star D.C. hotel, Trump delivered an animated [speech](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-turning-point-usas-teen-student-action-summit-2019/) at a summit hosted by the conservative NGO Turning Point USA, touching on topics ranging from securing U.S. borders to what he calls the “fake news” media. But one thing didn’t look quite right. A reporter for the Washington _Post_ [spotted a few peculiarities](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/25/how-did-trump-end-up-front-presidential-seal-doctored-include-russian-symbol/) in what at first glance appeared to be the presidential seal. But upon closer inspection, it looks to have been doctored to incorporate a two-headed eagle — resembling the bird on the Russian coat of arms — clutching a set of golf clubs.  President Donald Trump speaks during a Turning Point USA conference in Washington, D.C., on July 23, 2019. Chris Kleponis—Bloomberg/Getty Images How the seal, which was widely photographed, made its way onto the walls of the Marriott Hotel conference room remains unclear. A White House spokesperson told the _Post_ they did not see the fake seal before it was displayed on-screen. The Turning Point was also stumped. “It was an A/V mistake… it certainly wasn’t our intention,” a representative from the organization said, adding that he “can’t figure out who did it yet.” Richard Painter, a former chief White House ethics lawyer, called the incident “careless.” “Someone is going to be getting in trouble,” he said, “but they got one heck of a good laugh out of it.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5634675/trump-turning-point-russia-golf/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5634675/trump-turning-point-russia-golf/"},"headline":"Trump Gave a Speech Next to a Presidential Seal Doctored to Resemble a Russian Symbol","datePublished":"2019-07-25T09:49:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:56:49.447Z","description":"Speaking at a D.C. hotel, Trump stood before a doctored presidential seal that included a Russian symbol and golf clubs","url":"https://time.com/5634675/trump-turning-point-russia-golf/","keywords":["White House","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt830ab4d037e01d72/698a00677cdbacff91d610b0/trump-seal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Hillary Leung","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/hillary-leung/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt830ab4d037e01d72/698a00677cdbacff91d610b0/trump-seal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump-seal.jpg","caption":"President Trump Speaks At Turning Point USA's Teen Student Action Summit","creditText":"Chris Kleponis—Bloomberg/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":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5634675/trump-turning-point-russia-golf/","name":"Trump Gave a Speech Next to a Presidential Seal Doctored to Resemble a Russian Symbol"}}]}] ```