Trump's portrait to be taken down at Colorado Capitol after president claimed it was "purposely distorted"
A portrait of President Donald Trump hanging at the Colorado state Capitol will be taken down after Trump claimed it was "purposefully distorted," state officials said Monday.
The Executive Committee of the Legislative Counsel wrote a letter directing staff to take it down and store it in a safe place. The portrait will be taken down Monday night after the building closes and will be stored at History Colorado until further notice.
"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 by artist Sarah Boardman 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.
Former Colorado Senate President, Kevin Grantham, who spearheaded the GoFundMe campaign, told CBS Colorado he suggested to Governor Jared Polis that the painting be returned to its artist.
"This is an artist with a great reputation," said Grantham. "She's got a great body of work to her credit. And that stands alone by itself without this controversy."
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. The Republican lauded a nearby portrait of former President Barack Obama, also by Boardman, saying "he looks wonderful."
"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 Capitol Building Advisory Committee.
Although Grantham played a large role in getting the portrait in the State Capitol's Gallery of Presidents, he agreed with President Trump's request to remove the painting.
"I would kind of probably feel the same way he does," said Grantham. If I don't like it, I don't want everybody else looking at it either."
Boardman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. She previously told The Denver Post that it was important her depictions of both Obama and Trump looked "apolitical."
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 from Wyoming, 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."
