Albania's Foreign Minister, Elisa Spiropali, has published a photo and announcement stating that she met with Charles McLaughlin, a senior official of the National Security Council (NSC), at the "White House - Washington".
But the footage shared by her clearly shows that the meeting was not held at the US presidential residence, but in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) — the adjacent building, which houses the offices of the president's advisers, including the NSC staff.
This difference is not simply protocol. The White House is a much smaller building, with extremely limited access and completely different interiors from those seen in the photo. It does not have the large, dark wood-paneled halls shown — typical elements of the EEOB, not the presidential residence.
In practice, meetings with NSC officials almost always take place in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, not inside the White House. That's where advisers like McLaughlin work.
However, the minister chose to label the location as the "White House," creating the perception of a presence inside the presidential residence, while she was actually in the advisers' administrative building.
This is not the first time that senior Albanian officials have presented meetings in Washington as taking place "at the White House," while in reality they were held in auxiliary buildings of the presidential complex.
