Donald Trump took his rivalry with Barack Obama to the walls of the White House Friday, replacing a portrait of the former US president with one of himself surviving an assassination attempt.
The 78-year-old Republican moved the picture of the Democrat, the only Black US president, to the opposite side of the famed residence’s grand entrance hallway.
The move is a highly unusual one for a sitting president, as most must wait to leave office before getting their portrait hung in the historic 200-year-old building.
“Some new artwork at the White House,” the White House said on X, along with a video of people walking past Trump’s new picture in the spot by the main stairwell where Obama’s formerly hung.
The new painting shows the iconic moment when a bloodied Trump pumped his fist and shouted “fight” after a gunman shot him in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024.
A White House official said they didn’t immediately have information about the artist who painted it. It closely resembles a photograph of the same moment taken by the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
Several White House officials later posted pictures of Trump’s new picture, while showing Obama’s portrait nearby.
“The Obama portrait was just moved a few feet away,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on X — while telling a critic of the move to “Pipe down, moron.”
Traditionally US presidents often shift portraits of their predecessors, while keeping pictures of the most recent officeholders in the main entrance hall.
Obama’s was unveiled in 2022 by then-president Joe Biden and shows the 44th president in a black suit and grey tie against a white background.
But the White House’s fanfare around the switch-up reflects Trump’s long and bitter rivalry with Obama, who was president from 2009 to 2017.
The billionaire launched his political career by pushing the racist and false “birther” conspiracy theory that his Democratic predecessor was lying about being a natural-born American.
Obama responded by repeatedly mocking Trump, most notoriously in a roast at a White House Correspondents Association dinner in 2011.
It also reflects how former reality TV star Trump has never been shy about putting tributes to himself in his various residences.
He recently hung outside the Oval Office a gold-framed version of his mugshot from a case over alleged efforts to interfere with the 2020 election.
And he has a large bronze sculpture of his defiant reaction to the Butler assassination attempt at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
