President Donald Trump’s official portrait in the Colorado Capitol will be taken down Monday night after the president took to social media to complain about what he claimed was a “purposefully distorted” portrayal.
The General Assembly’s executive committee — composed of legislative leadership from both parties — signed a joint directive to legislative staff Monday afternoon to remove the portrait. The image will be removed after the Capitol closes Monday night, legislative staff said in an email.
The painting will then be stored “in a secure and appropriate location… until further notice,” according to the directive.
In a statement, House Democratic spokesman Jarrett Freedman said Republican leadership had asked that the portrait be removed.
“If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol,” he wrote, “then that’s up to them.”
Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Republican, said that he requested for Trump’s portrait to be taken down and replaced by one “that depicts his contemporary likeness.”
The portrait, commissioned during Trump’s first term, was paid for with a Republican-led fundraising effort and approved by Colorado Republicans before it was put on display in 2019.
The portrayal sparked Trump’s ire Sunday night.
“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 in his post on Truth Social.
Former state Senate President Kevin Grantham, a Republican, raised nearly $11,000 in an online fundraiser for the portrait in the summer of 2018 after he learned no donations had been received to fund the painting more than a year into Trump’s first term.
“I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one,” Trump wrote Sunday night, asking that Gov. Jared Polis “take it down.”
The unveiling of the portrait on Aug. 1, 2019 — at an event hosted by the Colorado Senate Republicans and artist Sarah Boardman of Colorado Springs — was described as nonpartisan by organizers.
In an interview Monday, Grantham recalled the event as “nothing but smiles and applause and support for the artist and her work.” Trump’s sudden criticism “caught me a little off guard,” Grantham said.
Grantham said that if any living president has an issue with their portrait at the Capitol, “it would be silly to keep it up.” It’s meant to honor the office of the presidency and the individuals in that exclusive club — but also, it’s a simple respect for the person to take down an image they don’t like, he said.
He also defended Boardman as an accomplished artist whose works would stand the test of time and didn’t deserve some of the vitriol lobbed her way.
“Even if we don’t like the current occupant of the White House, or the previous one, or the previous 10, let’s show some consideration to them as a human being first and foremost,” Grantham said.
Grantham said he’d be “happy to assist” in whatever the next steps are to replace Trump’s portrait.
Shelby Wieman, the governor’s press secretary, said in a statement Monday that Polis 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 said.
Trump’s social media post complained about Boardman, who also painted former President Barack Obama’s portrait in the Capitol’s Gallery of Presidents.
“The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst,” Trump wrote. “She must have lost her talent as she got older.”
Boardman previously told The Denver Post it was important to her that both Trump and Obama looked apolitical in their portraits because the gallery is meant to tell the story of the U.S. and not one specific president.
The other 43 presidential portraits in the Colorado gallery were painted by Lawrence Williams. He died before he could continue the collection with Obama’s portrait.
In 2018, after Colorado Citizens for Culture’s initial effort had failed to raise any money for a Trump portrait, an aide to then-House Speaker Crisanta Duran, a Democrat, helped a liberal political group sneak a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin into the Capitol, where it was displayed on an easel beneath the spot reserved for Trump.
Grantham launched his own fundraising campaign days later.
Trump’s Sunday night comments 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 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.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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