Was It Planned? Photo Catches Hilarious Image in Edge of Mirror Right Behind Trump

What happens when you get two of Western culture’s most prolific trolls together?

Well, for one, the Department of Government Efficiency and the dismantling of USAID, but that’s a bit more serious and not quite as trollsome. No, instead, you get pictures like this of President Donald Trump holding a model of a supersonic airliner mock-up.

It sure seems like something Elon Musk would cook up. And, in fact, he was there — but you had to look really hard.

Zoom into the mirror behind Trump. pic.twitter.com/DkUgybcJm5

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 15, 2025

The plane itself is pretty cool — we’ll get to that in a second — but let’s zoom in, shall we?

It’s Elon! pic.twitter.com/aRVx2x1ior

— 🇺🇸𝘔͜𝘰͜𝘮͜𝘮͜𝘢͜ 𝘏͜𝘦͜𝘯͜ 🇺🇸 (@Momma_Hen33) February 15, 2025

Now, there were some question of whether or not this was accidental or deliberate — and if deliberate, if it was digitally altered:

Well not sure what you think you see but it is clearly photoshopped unless Trump got shorter with white hair and dark skin🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/VVNSRo4hxa

— Rekkr 🇺🇸 (@Rekkr95) February 15, 2025

However, Musk was in appearance one way or another for what the U.S. Sun noted is being dubbed the “Son of Concorde.”

The plane Trump is holding is a mock-up presented to the president last week by the CEO of Boom Technology during a White House visit. The plane is known as the Overture, which is expected to enter service in 2029. The plane is slated to be the first supersonic airliner since the Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde was retired from service in 2003.

If you’re wondering why this is such a big deal — after all, the Concorde first flew in 1969 — it’s worth noting why only 20 of the Anglo-French plane were eventually built after an expensive, high-profile development period.

Supersonic planes produce what’s known as a “sonic boom.” For those unfamiliar, because the plane moves so quickly, it produces waves of air compression that can be heard on the ground because the plane is traveling faster than the air it compresses.

When it travels above Mach 1, or the speed of sound, the plane moves faster than the waves it compresses, which produces an amplified shockwave cone that can be powerful enough to damage infrastructure when it reaches the ground, especially glass windows and weaker buildings (not to mention giving those in its flight path one heck of an earache).

This meant that the Concorde could only travel supersonically over water, since the sonic boom shockwaves would be too harmful for overland flight to be practical. This meant it was only feasible for certain transoceanic flights — and then, only for the rich, since the price of fuel increased dramatically during the Concorde’s development.

For decades, aerospace manufacturers have been trying various aerodynamic fixes that would eliminate the sonic boom effect, not to mention increase efficiency. Boom’s XB-1 prototype, a one-third scale model of the Overture, reached Mach 1.12 over California during a test flight on Jan. 28 with no observable sonic boom on the ground.

As for the reasons, I’ll let Boom CEO Black Scholl explain it — because while I may be an aviation geek, I’m clearly not the genius this dude is:

How did that work? It’s actually well-known physics called Mach cutoff.
When an aircraft breaks the sound barrier at a sufficiently high altitude, the boom refracts in the atmosphere and curls upward without reaching the
ground. It makes a U-turn before anyone can hear it.

— Blake Scholl 🛫 (@bscholl) February 10, 2025

Just as a light ray bends as it goes through a glass of water, sound rays bend as they go through media with varying speeds of sound. Speed of sound varies with temperature… and temperature varies with altitude. With colder temperatures aloft, sonic booms bend upward.

— Blake Scholl 🛫 (@bscholl) February 10, 2025

Boomless Cruise requires engines powerful enough to break the sound barrier at an altitude high enough that the boom has enough altitude to U- turn. And realtime weather and powerful algorithms to predict the
boom propagation precisely.

— Blake Scholl 🛫 (@bscholl) February 10, 2025

The long and the short of this is: the XB-1 proves overland supersonic flight is, in fact, totally feasible without a sonic boom on the ground. After a second supersonic flight on Feb. 10, again with no observable sonic boom, the plane was retired:

Building XB-1 took a whole lot of never giving up. I feel sad she’ll never fly again.

But a few more years of not giving up and we will have something even more majestic in our skies. pic.twitter.com/fRiTeN0BZI

— Blake Scholl 🛫 (@bscholl) February 11, 2025

However, Scholl has suggested that Boom could construct the next Air Force One — noting on X that Chinese President Xi Jinping can keep his measly Boeing 747-8.

Air Force One should be supersonic.

Xi can keep his 747-8. pic.twitter.com/KA30BVy7x4

— Blake Scholl 🛫 (@bscholl) February 12, 2025

Bottom line: It’s an idea that’s so cool that you’d think Elon Musk would be involved. And he was! Just not in the way that anyone expected.

He’s also in more than just the photo, it’s worth noting. After the effects of sonic booms became well known, the U.S. government, not unreasonably, prohibited supersonic overland flight. However, they didn’t include any exemptions regarding noise profile — something Scholl said needed to be revisited.

Musk agreed:

This administration will get rid of all regulations that make no sense, like this one

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025

“This administration will get rid of all regulations that make no sense, like this one,” the Department of Government Efficiency chair said.

As well they they should: The Overture is already set to smash the Concorde’s sales numbers, with 130 pre-orders from American Airlines, Japan Airlines, and United Airlines. More are likely to come, particularly with the successful flights of the XB-1. And while Trump may never be able to fly in an Air Force One that goes supersonically, there’s a darn good chance one of his predecessors will.

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