A self-approved portrait of President Trump now hangs in the Colorado Capitol – replacing an earlier version he ripped as “purposefully distorted” and “truly the worst.”
The new portrait, created by Arizona-based Christian worship artist Vanessa Horabuena, is displayed in the third-floor rotunda of the Denver building’s wall of past presidents, occupying the same spot where Sarah Boardman’s original painting had hung since 2019.
The latest display, donated by the White House, mirrors Trump’s intense official presidential photo, depicting him leaning slightly forward with a furrowed brow and a steely gaze.
“Thank you to the Highly Talented Artist, Vanessa Horabuena, and the incredible people of Colorado,” the commander in chief posted on Truth Social Tuesday.
“Now on display at the Colorado State Capitol!”
The previous portrait, featuring a much younger version of Trump, was removed from the famed wall back in March after the president randomly took to social media to criticize it – despite its six-year run on display.
The original painting was commissioned after former Colorado Senate President Kevin Grantham, a Republican, raised more than $10,000 through a GoFundMe account during Trump’s first term.
“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,” Trump raged in March.
“The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one of me is truly the worst. She must have lost her talent as she got older.”
The Colorado Building Advisory Committee, not the governor, oversees the portraits.
Boardman, who received backlash following the president’s scathing comments, previously told The Denver Post that it was important for her portraits of both Trump and Obama to appear “apolitical.”
Colorado Democrats, who are in charge of the legislature, eventually agreed to take the painting down at the request of local Republican leaders.
Lois Court, a former state lawmaker who chairs the Capitol Building Advisory Committee, said she received the Trump-endorsed portrait over a month ago and decided on Thursday to hang it this week.
“There was a blank on the wall,” she said.
“It seemed inappropriate. We knew that the White House had sent us this replacement and it simply made sense to put it up.”
With Post wires
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