The real problem with the Trump portrait

When Winston Churchill saw the portrait commissioned by parliament for his 80th birthday, he called it “filthy and malignant” and said it made him look “half-witted.” The picture, painted by Graham Sutherland, was soon whisked off to Chartwell, Churchill’s estate in Kent. It moldered there unseen for some years before Churchill’s private secretary ferried it to a secluded cottage and burnt the wretched object. Clemmie, Churchill’s long-suffering wife, approved of the conflagration.

A similar fate could fall upon Sarah Boardman’s portrait of Donald Trump, which has been hanging in the Colorado Capitol for the last six years.

Trump hates that picture, calling it “purposefully distorted” and taking to Truth Social to vent his spleen. “Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of [himself],” he wrote:

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 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.

Classic Trump, which the Guardian (among many other anti-Trump sites) gloated over. “Petty, insecure baby,” they crowed, quoting from the site “Republicans Against Trump.” 

It is worth noting that Donald Trump is not the only American President to be unhappy with their portrait. When LBJ was president, the White House commissioned an official portrait from an artist who had done many paintings on themes from the American West. A year went by after LBJ sat for the portrait. Finally, the day arrived for the official unveiling of the painting. No one had previously seen it. At the ceremony, the painting was covered, and many guests and the press were in attendance. Then the time came to unveil the portrait. LBJ looked at it and said: “That’s the ugliest thing I ever saw.”

The Trump portrait, however, is just bad. It’s not malicious. It is recognizably Trump. But it emphasizes, or over-emphasizes, rather, his portliness, which in Boardman’s hands bespeaks a spiritual flabbiness and lack of élan. What it misses entirely are Trump’s two leading characteristics: his boundless energy and his sense of humor. Those are nowhere to be found.

It could be worse. We could be back in the bad old days of Trump’s first term, when the anti-Trump actor Jim Carrey got a laugh from people who watch Jimmy Kimmel with his caricatures of the President. Trump was none too pleased about those, either, but now he is President of the United States for a second tune and Jim Carrey is… Well, who knows, and who cares? 

These days, I find myself quoting that old Arabic piece of wisdom often as I watch Donald Trump and his team remake America’s government while the chihuahuas of the Deep State nip and fret and goggle. “The dogs are barking,” the saying goes, “but the caravan moves on.”