False satanic rumors target White House holiday decorations
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 2, 2022 at 22:38
- 3 min read
- By AFP USA
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
"Uh… Call me crazy but… Maybe I missed the part of the story where Baphomet is supposed to be a Christmas decoration?" says a November 29, 2022 tweet.
The claim also circulated on Facebook, including one November 28 post warning: "Idk about you, but I don't worship the spirit of Baphomet! Christians wake up! This isn't a conspiracy theory. The White House is full of people working daily for Satan!"
Similar claims spread on TikTok and in a segment on a talk show affiliated with Alex Jones's Infowars.
Three minutes into "War Room with Owen Shroyer," the host says: "People noticed this mirror and they started zooming in, and is that a head of Baphomet on the mirror there? ... I would suffice to say it is the head of Baphomet on the mirror in the Biden White House ... Right there, with their Christmas decorations. But I am sure it's just all a coincidence, folks."
Baphomet is a deity that the Knights Templar was accused of worshipping.
French occultist Eliphas Levi is credited with imagining Baphomet as a winged human figure with the head and feet of a goat in 1854. More recently, The Satanic Temple took an 8-foot-tall statue of the goat-human hybrid around the United States as part of protests against government buildings with prominent religious displays.
The notion that the White House decorations include Baphomet plays into theories pushed by followers of QAnon, a far-right movement that baselessly claims there is a global cabal ofSatan-worshipping pedophiles. But the posts are incorrect.
Donated in 1946
Jessica Fredericks, assistant vice president of communications at The White House Historical Association, told AFP that "the mirror was made circa 1790 and was donated to the White House in 1946."
She said presidential families have used the mirror for decades.
"It appears that it was put on display in the State Dining Room circa 1961 when the Kennedys moved in," Fredericks said, pointing to a December 13, 1961 archive photo showing the gilded mirror.
The image in the posts was first published on Twitter by First Lady Jill Biden on November 28.
For this year’s holidays at the White House, we hope to capture the spirit embodied in the very idea of America: We the People. pic.twitter.com/SKyXZ9RkI8
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) November 28, 2022
The same mirror was on display alongside White House holiday decorations during Donald Trump's presidency, as seen in photos taken by AFP.
AFP has debunked other false claims about holiday traditions at the White House here and here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
