The Real Story Behind Colorado’s ‘Distorted’ Portrait of Trump
Not all state capitols have a collection of presidential portraits, but Colorado is proud to be one that does. Now, however, President Donald Trump wants his portrait removed.
“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 posted on Truth Social on Sunday night. “I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one.”
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Trump said that “many people” from Colorado have complained about the portrait to him: “In fact, they are actually angry about it!” He added that he’s contacted Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis (whom Trump called a “Radical Left Governor” who is “extremely weak on Crime”) to take the portrait down. “Jared should be ashamed of himself!” Trump concluded.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office told Denver news outlet 9News that Gov. 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.”
The reality is it wasn’t Polis who commissioned the Trump portrait in the first place—nor any political opponent of the President. And it’s actually been up for years. Here’s what to know.
Funding for the portraits in the Colorado State Capitol typically comes from private donations collected by Colorado Citizens for Culture, a grassroots organization supporting the arts in the state. During Trump’s first term, the group needed to raise $10,000 to commission a portrait of him, but in 2018, the organization’s president Jay Seller said not a single donation had come in.
In July that year, a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin was displayed on an easel in front of the empty spot where Trump’s portrait was expected to hang, after a member of nonprofit progressive advocacy organization ProgressNow Colorado snuck in. Katie March, the Democratic legislative staffer who swiped in the activist had her security clearances stripped and faced disciplinary action. “We hope that public awareness has been raised over the danger of Russian influence over the President of the United States,” ProgressNow Colorado’s executive director Ian Silverii told 9News. “Next time we’ll use the front door.”
The stunt ignited anger among Republicans, making national and international headlines, but it also highlighted the absence of Trump’s official portrait. Republican Kevin Grantham, then-President of the state senate, launched a GoFundMe to raise funds for a portrait. Within about 32 hours, the campaign met its $10,000 goal through donations from about 200 donors that included several notable state Republicans as well as former Democrat state representative Dan Pabon, who told Colorado Public Radio: “The hall of portraits of presidents is a tour showcase for any school-aged students coming through here, and I just wanted to make sure that when they came through they had the full experience of all the presidents that have been elected.”
During the portrait’s August 2019 unveiling ceremony at the State Capitol, which was billed as a nonpartisan event though hosted by Colorado’s Senate Republicans, Grantham called the crowdfunding “fitting” for a “populist” such as Trump.
Sarah A. Boardman, a British-born artist based in Colorado Springs, was commissioned to paint the portrait. Boardman had also painted the portrait of Barack Obama, after Lawrence Williams, the artist who had painted all 43 previous presidential portraits, died in 2003. Boardman said at the unveiling ceremony that she tried to match the classical realist style of Williams’ paintings and that it took around four months to complete the painting of Trump, which was based on a photograph voted on and approved by the Capitol Building Advisory Committee.
“My portrait of President Trump has been called thoughtful, non-confrontational, not angry, not happy, not tweeting,” Boardman said at the time. “In five, 10, 15, 20 years, he will be another President on the wall who is only historical background, and he needs to look neutral.”
TIME has reached out to Grantham and Boardman for comment on the newfound controversy.
Trump’s not the only President to have found a portrait unflattering. Theodore Roosevelt loathed his White House portrait by French artist Theobald Chartran in 1902, saying it made him look like a “mewing cat.” He hid the work in his closet and ultimately had it destroyed and replaced with a different artist’s. Whether Trump’s portrait in Colorado faces a similar fate is unclear. There is, however, one portrait commissioned elsewhere that Trump is reportedly much more fond of: U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff told conservative media commentator Tucker Carlson on Friday that Trump “was clearly touched” after Putin recently gave Witkoff a “beautiful” portrait of the U.S. President that the Russian President had commissioned a leading Russian artist to paint.