A portrait of former President Barack Obama that hung in the Grand Foyer of the White House has been replaced by a painting of a bloodied and defiant Donald Trump raising his fist after an assassination attempt last year at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino posted Friday on X before-and-after photographs of the Obama portrait and the Trump painting in the same area at the bottom of the Grand Staircase. The White House also released a video Friday on its X account showing people walking past the painting of Trump where the Obama portrait used to hang.
Obama's portrait, by artist Robert McCurdy, shows the former president in a black suit and gray tie in front of a white background. It still hangs in a place of prominence, just across the Grand Foyer from where it had been since 2022, according to a post on X by Harrison Fields, White House principal deputy press secretary.
A White House official told Newsmax on Friday night that the canvas painting of Trump was done by artist Marc Lipp and given to the White House by Andrew Pollack through the Blue Gallery in Delray Beach, Florida, which represents Lipp.
Pollack is an author and school safety advocate whose daughter Meadow, 18, was among the 17 students killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, according to the New York Post.
Lipp's painting is his interpretation of iconic photographs taken by Evan Vucci of The Associated Press and Doug Mills of The New York Times as the assassination attempt occurred, showing a bloodied Trump raising his fist while surrounded by Secret Service agents, with an American flag in the background.
The new painting was hung Friday, the White House official said. Obama's portrait was moved to a spot occupied by a portrait of George W. Bush, and that portrait will be relocated next to his father's, George H.W. Bush, and still will be visible on the State Floor.
Official portraits of Trump and first lady Melania Trump for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's collection are in the works, though an unveiling has yet to be announced, CNN reported. Both portraits will be paid for by privately raised funds, including a $650,000 donation from Trump's Save America PAC and another private donation, which supports artist fees, shipping, framing, installation and events, according to National Portrait Gallery spokesperson Concetta Duncan.
A print of a 1989 photograph by Michael O'Brien of a smiling Trump in a suit, tossing a red apple, is also in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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