Donald Trump has demanded the removal of a ‘purposefully distorted’ presidential portrait hung in the Colorado State Capitol.
The 78-year-old is seething at his predecessor Barack Obama looking better than him on a wall of portraits of US presidents.
‘He looks wonderful’, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform last night. ‘But the one on me is truly the worst.’
For the first two-and-a-half years of Trump’s last term in office, his face was noticeably absent from the gallery.
Portraits are funded by private donations, not public funds, and none had been forthcoming.
That was until a portrait of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin appeared in front of Trump’s spot in July 2018, courtesy of an activist from ProgressNow Colorado, who snuck in.
Suddenly, fuelled by anger, the money flowed. Within 32 hours, the $10,000 target had been reached.
‘It’s only fitting that a populist, such as the president, would have the first crowd-funded campaign for a presidential portrait’, former state senate president Kevin Grantham, who led the fundraising, said.
Commissioned to paint it was Sarah A. Boardman, a British-born artist , now based in Colorado Springs, who painted the Obama portrait during his time in office.
She had stepped up to the job after Lawrence Williams, who painted the previous 43, died in 2003.
At the time, her portrait of Trump seemed to go down well when it was unveiled in August 2019.
Boardman said: ‘My portrait of President Trump has been called thoughtful, non-confrontational, not angry, not happy, not tweeting,
‘In five, 10, 15, 20 years, he will be another President on the wall who is only historical background, and he needs to look neutral.’
For his allies, like state representative Kevin Van Winkle, it was ‘a great day to be an American’.
Almost six years on, Trump appears to have decided he doesn’t agree, accusing the portrait of being ‘purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before’.
‘Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves’, he wrote on social media.
‘The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst. She must have lost her talent as she got older.
‘In any event, I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one, but many people from Colorado have called and written to complain.
‘In fact, they are actually angry about it! I am speaking on their behalf to the Radical Left Governor, Jared Polis, who is extremely weak on Crime, in particular with respect to Tren de Aragua, which practically took over Aurora (Don’t worry, we saved it!), to take it down.
‘Jared should be ashamed of himself!’
Trump last week revived the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to speed up mass deportations to tackle what he claims is an ‘invasion’ by Tren De Aragua, an international criminal organisation from Venezuela.
It was last used to intern 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage during World War Two.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
