Trump Demands Removal Of Unflattering Portrait In Colorado Capitol

@alexsamuelsx5
Trump Demands Removal Of Unflattering Portrait In Colorado Capitol

Portrait of President Donald Trump in Colorado State Capitol (since removed)

Screenshot via YouTube

You’d think President Donald Trump would have enough on his plate, what with singlehandedly tanking the economy and threatening to deport his political enemies. Yet he somehow found time to complain that a portrait of himself in the Colorado Capitol is too ugly to be his.

“Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,” the president posted on Truth Social on Sunday evening.

“The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst,” he added, before criticizing the artist and making the crude remark that “she must have lost her talent as she got older.” Trump also demanded that the state’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, take the picture down.

“Gov. Polis was surprised to learn the President of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado State Capitol and its artwork,” spokesperson Shelby Wieman said in a statement to Axios.

By Monday afternoon, the Associated Press reported that the portrait would be taken down.

The painting, created by Colorado-based artist Sarah Boardman, was unveiled on Aug. 1, 2019, according to The Denver Post. It shows Trump in a dark suit and red tie, and hangs in the Gallery of Presidents in the rotunda Colorado Capitol.

It’s no surprise that Trump, a well-documented misogynist, would insult the female artist behind the “distorted” portrait. Boardman has a long resume showcasing her talents, but she’s painted only two presidential portraits for the state—the ones of Obama and Trump. The other 43 presidents were painted by the late artist Lawrence Williams, who died before he could finish Obama’s portrait.

Boardman, who proudly includes the Trump portrait on her online resume, previously told The Denver Post that she aimed for both Obama and Trump’s portraits to feel apolitical.

“In today’s environment it’s all very upfront, but in another five, 10, 15 years he will be another president on the wall,” Boardman said. “And he needs to look neutral.”

Trump has a massively inflated sense of self, of course, so it’s unclear if “many people from Colorado,” as he claims, have actually called to complain about the portrait. Interestingly, it was the people of Colorado—and Republicans, in particular—who spearheaded the effort to commission and fund the painting in 2018.

According to The Denver Post, Kevin J. Grantham, then the president of the Colorado state Senate, raised nearly $11,000 in an online fundraiser for the portrait after no donations had been received to fund the commissioned work more than a year into Trump’s first term.

That said, it’s also unclear why Trump believes the governor was involved in the artistic direction of the painting or what triggered this outburst in the first place.

Following his tantrum, Trump posted two additional photos of himself on Truth Social, seemingly to share pictures he considered, uh, more flattering. However, he probably would’ve been better off not sharing—for the entire world to see—the portrait he supposedly despises.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}