A painting of an iconic scene of President Donald Trump surviving an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last summer now hangs in the Grand Foyer of the White House, after an official portrait of former President Barack Obama was moved from the location.
The White House’s official social media account posted an image of the Trump painting – the authenticity of which two officials confirmed separately to CNN. The Obama portrait was moved across the Grand Foyer in place of a President George W. Bush portrait. The 43rd president was moved to join his father by a nearby staircase.
The dramatic image of Trump raising his right fist, with blood splattered across his face, became an emblem of strength in his presidential campaign. As of Friday morning, it hangs in one of the most prominent places in the East Wing of the White House.
White House tradition calls for portraits of the most recent American presidents to be given the most prominent placement, in the entrance of the executive mansion, visible to guests during official events. An official Trump portrait has not yet been revealed, but an official said the president wanted this moment from Butler, Pennsylvania, to serve in the role of prominence.
The move is reminiscent of a decision Trump made during his first term, when he replaced portraits of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in the Grand Foyer, choosing instead to highlight William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
Obama’s portrait still hangs in a place of prominence, just across the Grand Foyer from where it has been since 2022. A portrait of former President Joe Biden has not been finished.
CNN has reached out to the White House Historical Association for comment. A spokesperson for Obama declined to comment.
Privately funded by the nonprofit White House Historical Association, the formal tradition of the presidential portrait came to be in the early 1960s under first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, according to former White House curator Betty Monkman. Prior to that, there had been a relatively “haphazard” policy, Monkman said in a 2017 podcast for the association, with the portraits being funded by Congress or commissioned by friends – or by the president himself.
Details on the origin of this Trump portrait, its artist and who paid for it were not immediately clear, though it appears to be based on iconic photographs of Trump taken moments after the assassination attempt at his July 2024 Butler, Pennsylvania, rally by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci and New York Times photographer Doug Mills.
In the modern era of White House portraits, presidents and first ladies have invited their predecessors, former staff and friends and family for unveiling ceremonies.
“It’s a statement of generosity on the current president and first lady to invite all these people from an outgoing administration,” Monkman said, recalling a ceremony during the Johnson administration for Eleanor Roosevelt’s portrait unveiling.
The new painting was carried inside the West Wing early Tuesday morning and was hung without significant pomp and circumstance on Friday morning, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Official portraits of the president and first lady for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s collection are currently in the works, though an unveiling has yet to be announced. Both of those portraits will be paid for by privately raised funds, including a $650,000 donation from Trump’s Save America PAC, and an additional 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.
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