In August 2025, an image circulated on social media claiming to show artwork depicting the Nazi-era battleship Bismarck in the office of E.J. Antoni, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Antoni currently serves as the chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025.
"Experts have noticed that Trump's new head of labor statistics appears to have a Nazi ship hanging behind him in his office," an X account run by the Democratic Party posted (archived) on Aug. 12.
The image circulated elsewhere on X, Threads and Facebook.
Snopes readers also searched our website and emailed us to verify the claim.
However, the image that circulated online is a screengrab from a December 2024 interview with Antoni.
Snopes was unable to confirm whether the artwork depicting the ship remained on display in Antoni's office as of August 2025. The reasons behind Antoni's decision to display the artwork also were unclear. The White House and Antoni had not responded to our requests for comment about the artwork by the time of publication.
Snopes traced the image of Antoni that circulated on social media back to an interview with Main Street Matters published to YouTube on Dec. 9, 2024. In the interview, Antoni is seen wearing the same striped tie, black or dark gray vest, and light gray dress shirt that was shown in image shared online.
During the interview, a multipanel wall art piece depicting a large battleship was visible behind Antoni.
Snopes found what appeared to be the same artwork in an eBay listing (archived), which described the wall art as the "German battleship Bismarck." The ship seen in both Antoni's interview and the eBay listing shared distinctive structural features and identical wave patterns.
During an October 2023 interview shared on YouTube, Antoni had the same artwork displayed behind him and confirmed that it indeed depicted the Bismarck.
The host of that interview said, "I think this is the first guest we've had with a beautiful warship behind them. The Bismarck?"
Antoni replied, "The Bismarck, yep, in all his glory." He added, "It is at the bottom of the sea, along with the Hood that it sank just days before."
Antoni also acknowledged the Bismarck in a December 2023 X post (archived). A user who saw Antoni on Newsmax asked, "What is the ship behind you?" Antoni replied (archived), "Bismarck."
The Bismarck was a German battleship of World War II, when the Nazi Party and its leader, Adolf Hitler, were in power. Construction on the Bismarck began in 1936 and the ship launched in 1939, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
In May 1941, a British reconnaissance plane spotted the Bismarck, which was under the command of Adm. Günther Lütjens near Bergen, Norway. The British Home Fleet was quickly sent into action to intercept it, Encyclopedia Britannica said. The battleship Prince of Wales and battle cruiser Hood soon engaged the German battleship, which ultimately destroyed the Hood with a shell that exploded in the magazine, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
After the Bismarck escaping into the open sea, an aircraft spotted it and the battleship was hit by a torpedo that damaged its steering gear. On May 27, 1941, two British battleships incapacitated the Bismarck in an hourlong attack and it sank 90 minutes later after it was hit by three torpedoes from a British cruiser, Encyclopedia Britannica said.
Only about 110 crew members out of around 2,300 aboard the Bismarck survived, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
In 1989, an expedition led by an American oceanographer found the wreckage of the Bismarck. The ship was found lying upright at a depth of more than 15,000 feet, Encyclopedia Britannica said.