DENVER — The White House has donated a new portrait of President Donald Trump that will hang in the Colorado State Capitol building – at least for now.
The portrait of Trump that had hung on inside the Colorado Capitol rotunda since 2019 was removed after the president lambasted it as “purposefully distorted” back in March.
The White House-endorsed replacement depicts Trump against a black background with a stern expression, closely matching his official presidential portrait for his second term that was unveiled earlier this month.
“We have decided that we will move ahead with temporarily hanging the portrait that has been donated to us from the White House,” Colorado State Sen. Lois Court, the chair of the Capitol Building Advisory Committee, said during Thursday's committee meeting, adding that it was being framed at the time.
Court added that the committee would have a "thorough discussion about all the presidential portraits" at its next meeting in September. The new portrait will be hung when it is framed and returned to the Capitol, according to the Legislative Council staff.
The original portrait, which was commissioned by Colorado Senate Republicans, was taken down days after Trump criticized it in a March 23 post on his social network, Truth Social.
“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 wrote, later calling his portrait “the worst” compared to the “wonderful” portrait of former President Barack Obama that hung nearby.
It’s worth noting that Polis was elected months after the portrait was paid for.
Sarah Boardman, the artist responsible for the original portrait, defended her work in an email exchange with Denver7.
“I completed the portrait accurately, without ‘purposeful distortion,’ political bias, or any attempt to caricature the subject, actual or implied. I fulfilled the task per my contract,” she said.
She also claimed Trump’s comments were “directly and negatively impacting” her business.
Denver7 had also profiled Boardman in 2019 when she completed the painting. At the time, she told us about the “pressure in every direction” involved with painting a presidential portrait. Watch our full story with Boardman in the video player below: