‘If you’re visiting any public office, you’ll start seeing the portrait up on display soon!’ the U.S. General Services Administration says.
President Donald Trump’s official portrait will now be on display in all government buildings across the nation, according to the Trump administration.
“Heads up! As part of a new directive, all government buildings & public offices will now display the official portrait of our 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” the U.S. General Services Administration (GSAA) announced on Friday in a
statement on X. “If you’re visiting any public office, you’ll start seeing the portrait up on display soon!”
This includes city halls, courthouses, state capitols, and federal office buildings.
Trump’s official portrait for his second term was famously captured by White House photographer Daniel Torok and released on Jan. 15, ahead of his inauguration. The 47th president appears serious and stern in the portrait, a stark contrast from the joyful expression captured in his first official portrait as the 45th president.
The Trump administration’s new directive comes after controversy over a presidential painting that was displayed at the Colorado Capitol last month. The image received a flurry of negative feedback from many critics, including Trump himself, for what they believed was a distorted image of him. It was taken down shortly after Trump publicly expressed his dissatisfaction and criticized the artist.
“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 said in a March 23
statement on Truth Social. “The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst.”
The artist, Sarah Boardman, defended her artwork.
“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,” Boardman wrote in a
statement, adding that Trump’s criticism of her work put her business “in danger of not recovering.”
Presidential portraits carry significant symbolism and are stamped in history forever, according to the White House Historical Association. The portraits are formally presented to the public and inducted into the White House Collection.
“Over time, the White House fine art collection has added portraits of every president and most of the first ladies,” the
White House Historical Association states on its website. “Not only do these portraits remind us how a particular president looked, especially important before the invention of photography, but they also offer historical clues through a variety of symbols, props, or backgrounds.”
While some presidential portraits are more famous than others, the association says, the historical images reveal small details about the presidents and the legacy they left behind.
