WASHINGTON — As political props go, the one in the middle of the conference table during President Trump’s cabinet meeting on Wednesday was as hard to miss as it was baffling.

It was a movie-style poster of the president in a bestride-the-colossus pose, hair lacquered in place, gaze serious and purposeful, with the words “SANCTIONS ARE COMING NOVEMBER 4” emblazoned across the middle.

Mr. Trump did not talk about the poster. Nor did any of his cabinet members seated around him, or even Vice President Mike Pence, who was sitting directly in front of it. And he made no connection to the date on the poster — two days before Election Day.

But in November he had tweeted a picture of the poster, with the date of Nov. 5, to announce that sanctions against Iran, which had been repealed when President Barack Obama signed a nuclear agreement with the country in 2015, were going to be reimposed. And as he took questions from reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Trump mentioned that Iran was now a much different country, apparently because of the sanctions that the United States had imposed.