Trump sees red: His portrait ‘has been deliberately distorted’

Not to his liking, so he requested it be taken down from the wall of the Colorado Capitol. And the Western US state has agreed to do so.

On March 24th, between posts on immigration and tariffs, the American president expressed his anger about a portrait he finds very unflattering. “No one likes a bad photo or painting of themselves, but the one at the Colorado Capitol, installed by the governor, next to all the other presidents, has been deliberately distorted,” he remarked. In the process, Donald Trump expressed a certain jealousy towards one of his predecessors, Barack Obama, whose portrait he considers much more successful. He describes the work of the British artist Sarah Boardman, who also painted his portrait, as “magnificent, but mine is really the worst”. “She (the artist) must have lost her talent as she aged. I would much prefer there to be nothing than this painting.”

‘If Trump wants to waste his time…’

According to the Republican, this is a “political manoeuvre” of which he's a victim. Unable to stand this sight anymore, Trump invited Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, to take down the painting, which was installed in 2019. And as reported by the media 20 Minutes, his invitation was quickly received by the State Parliament’s administration (where both chambers have a Democratic majority) who issued a directive to “immediately remove Donald Trump's portrait from its current location on the third floor of the Capitol”. And Jarrett Freedman, the Democratic majority spokesperson for the Colorado House of Representatives, commented: “If the Republican Party wants to waste its time and money deciding which Trump portrait to hang in the Capitol, that’s their business.”

The President of the United States seems to prefer the gift from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin : a portrait of himself that he considers “magnificent”.

(MH with Olivia Stasse - Source: 20 Minutes - Illustration: ©Unsplash)