Portraits of President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama hang in the Capitol Rotunda in Denver on Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn) 
A news crew works in front of a wall of presidential portraits at the Colorado Capitol on Monday, March 24, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert) 
Christopher Nicklin, center, with friends Brandon Kramer, left, and Clint Denison, right, take a photo of the portrait of President Donald Trump hanging in the rotunda on the third floor of the Colorado State Capitol, Monday, March 24, 2025, in Denver. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP) 
A portrait of President Donald Trump hangs on a wall in the rotunda on the third floor of the Colorado Capitol, Monday, March 24, 2025, in Denver. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP) 
The plaque that marked the placement of a portrait of President Donald Trump is all that remains after the picture, which was part of a display of all of the country’s chief executives, was removed from the wall of the rotunda in the State Capitol following complaints about the likeness from Trump Tuesday, March 25, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) 
The plaque that marked the placement of a portrait of President Donald Trump is all that remains after the picture, which was part of a display of all of the country’s chief executives, was removed from the wall of the rotunda in the State Capitol following complaints about the likeness from Trump Tuesday, March 25, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) 
A woman takes a photograph of the empty spot where the portrait of President Donald Trump was placed after the picture, which was part of a display of all of the country’s chief executives, was removed from the wall of the rotunda in the State Capitol following complaints about the likeness from Trump Tuesday, March 25, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) 
A group poses for a photograph near the empty spot where a portrait of President Donald Trump once was displayed after the picture, which was part of a display of all of the country’s chief executives, was removed from the wall of the rotunda in the State Capitol following complaints about the likeness from Trump Tuesday, March 25, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) 
As viewed through a fisheye lens, the rotunda where portraits of presidents are displayed except for Donald Trump is shown after the picture was removed from the wall of the rotunda in the State Capitol following complaints about the likeness from Trump Tuesday, March 25, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
DENVER | Filling an empty space on the wall of presidential portraits in the Colorado Capitol with a new painting of Donald Trump could take time after one he disliked was removed and put into storage.
Legislative leaders from both parties will decide how to replace the painting that Trump derided Sunday night on social media and that by Tuesday morning had been taken down.
When they will meet about a new painting is anyone’s guess. The Legislature is focused on more pressing matters including the state budget.
“We have no idea when a new portrait is going to go up, how it’s going to be fundraised, who is going to pay for it, who is going to paint it, etc.,” Joshua Bly, a spokesperson for Colorado Senate Republicans said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
Bly also said no one knows yet whether Trump will get to approve a new portrait.
Colorado Republicans raised more than $10,000 to commission the Trump painting that had been in the state Capitol since 2019, alongside other U.S. presidents.
Sometime late Monday or early Tuesday, the Trump portrait by Colorado Springs artist Sarah Boardman was removed and put in storage with History Colorado, overseer of a state museum in Denver. It is unlikely to be displayed elsewhere, Bly said.
The move came at the request of Colorado Republicans after Trump claimed the artist had “purposefully distorted” him. He praised the portrait of Barack Obama, painted by the same artist.
It’s not the first time that Trump’s attention has turned to Colorado, which has shifted from leaning red to leaning blue over the past two decades.
He criticized the Colorado Supreme Court in 2023 for declaring he was ineligible for the White House and could not appear on the state ballot because of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection. While campaigning last year, Trump made Aurora a focus of his illegal immigration message.
Before his portrait was installed, a prankster placed a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin near the spot intended for Trump.
Boardman did not return phone and email messages seeking comment. In 2019, she said painted him with a “nonconfrontational” and “thoughtful” expression, drawing criticism from those who said that’s not who he really is. She said her portraits of Trump and Obama were not political statements.
The presidential portraits are not the purview of the Colorado Building Advisory Committee. The ones up to and including President Jimmy Carter were donated as a collection. The others were donated by political parties or paid for by outside fundraising.
Take all the time you need. No, seriously. No rush.
Happy anytime trump’s portrait taken down. Don’t hurry on the replacement, unless it shows him behind bars.
I thought the portrait was very nice it looked so professional and made him look regal and deserving which he is not it’s just goes to show how to good it was for him he couldn’t be regal enough to keep his ignorant mouth shut I’m glad there will never be a protrait that lies about who he is in history it almost happened with this thank God he couldn’t even see hisself deserving of that glorious portrait and thank God history will always even show in pictures the truth he’s beneath the lowest form of life and never deserving of four years in our Whitehouse history will show how he really got there and portraits he picked will reflect it please destroy the portrait it is a lie he is never and never could be that man the artist is good but she.shouldnt.make up were he’s lacking!! the Putin portrait fitshis him leave it stop wasting money if you copy a time magazine picture of him with a 3-d printer that will be most efficient and he will love it!! you should paint a smiley face over that one or Pinocchio