The president keeps the gun of Saddam Hussein in arm’s reach, according to this Time article:
Sources say that the military had the pistol mounted after the soldiers seized it from Saddam and that it was then presented to the President privately by some of the troops who played a key role in ferreting out the old tyrant.
[cut…]
“He really liked showing it off,” says a recent visitor to the White House who has seen the gun. “He was really proud of it.”
There is more to find in that small room where that pistol is shown:
Another of the room’s mementos: a photograph of special-forces soldiers in Afghanistan praying after burying a piece of the World Trade Center there as a tribute to those who died in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Evil symbolism.