DENVER | A portrait of President Donald hanging at the Colorado state Capitol will be taken down after Trump claimed it was “purposefully distorted,” state officials said Monday.
House Democrats said in a statement that the oil painting would be taken down at the request of Republican leaders in the Legislature.
“If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol, then that’s up to them,” the Democrats said.
The portrait was painted during Trump’s first term and unveiled in 2019. Colorado Republicans raised more than $10,000 through a GoFundMe account to commission the oil painting by Sarah Boardman, who also produced the Capitol’s portrait of President Barack Obama.
The commissioned portrait came at the heels of a controversy caused by a prank where a progressive activist placed a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a place reserved for Trump’s portrait in 2018.
Trump lauded Obama’s portrait, saying “he looks wonderful,” then suggested that the artist “lost her talent as she got older.”
One Trump supporter at the time said that the portrait “does him great justice.” But in a Sunday night post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he would prefer no picture at all over the one that hangs in the Colorado Capitol.
“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.
The portraits are not the purview of the Colorado governor’s office, but the Colorado Building Advisory Committee.
Trump’s comments had prompted a steady stream of visitors to pose for photos with the painting before the announcement that it would be taken down.
Aaron Howe, visiting Colorado’s state Capitol from Wyoming on Monday, stood in front of Trump’s portrait, looking down at photos of the president on his phone, then back up at the portrait.
“Honestly he looks a little chubby,” said Howe of the portrait, but “better than I could do.”
“I don’t know anything about the artist,” said Howe, who voted for Trump. “It could be taken one way or the other.”
Kaylee Williamson, an 18-year-old Trump supporter from Arkansas, got a photo with the portrait.
“I think it looks like him. I guess he’s smoother than all the other ones,” she said. “I think it’s fine.”
Trump spoke disparagingly about Polis, accusing him of not only manipulating the portrait, but that “Radical Left Governor, Jared Polis” is extremely weak on Crime in particular with respect to Tren de Aragua, which practically took over Aurora (Don’t worry, we saved it!).” Trump has for months promoted a false narrative that Aurora was “overrun” by Venezuelan immigrants and members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua. After repeating the false claims during his March 4 speech to Congress, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and others told Sentinel Colorado that the false narrative has could hurt local businesses and the economy.
The Trump portrait was still up Monday morning. Boardman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, but the artist previously told The Denver Post when the portrait was unveiled that it was important that her depictions of both Obama and Trump look “apolitical.”
Shelby Wieman, a spokesperson for Polis said in a statement that the governor was “surprised to learn the President of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado State Capitol and its artwork.”
“We appreciate the President and everyone’s interest in our Capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience,” Wieman continued.
So, throw eggs at it, and, put Putin’s mug back up.
Burn it in effigy along with the $10,000 paid for it by the Republicans
Frankly, Colorado missed a great opportunity to piss Trump off even more by not taking it down. I’m sure the dumb Dem’s jumped at the chance to take the painting off the wall. I’m also surprised that Chancellor Trump didn’t mandate that Gov Polis pay for a new painting, since Trump blamed Polis for deliberately distorted it.
To this quote, I laugh, “surprised to learn the President of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado State Capitol and its artwork. We appreciate the President and everyone’s interest in our Capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience.” Chancellor Trump has no interest in the Colorado State Capitol or its artwork. Let’s be real here. I don’t believe Trump has ever visited our Capitol building after the portrait was placed. I’m pretty sure someone from MAGA in our legislature send him or his staff a pic of the portrait commenting on how bad it is.