KULTUR- KITSCH
A White House official said there are more Trump portraits to come amid controversy over the president's decision to move Barack Obama's official portrait to a hidden stairwell
Meredith Kile
Wed, August 20, 2025
Win McNamee/Getty; Chip Somodevilla/GettyTwo of the many new paintings of President Donald Trump that now hang in the White House
President Donald Trump is hanging even more portraits of himself around the White House.
This week, a new painting of the president was revealed on social media. Longtime Trump ally Sebastian Gorka, who is currently serving as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism, shared a photo on X of the artwork, which shows Trump walking forward, his hands tucked into a long dark coat, flanked by rows of American flags.
"One of the new @WhiteHouse paintings of President @realDonaldTrump," Gorka captioned the post. "More to come."
One of the new @WhiteHouse paintings of President @realDonaldTrump.
More to come. pic.twitter.com/yQy8qiVejC
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) August 19, 2025
Another new addition to the White House art collection was shared in May by New York Times White House correspondent Shawn McCreesh.
McCreesh posted a photo to X of a portrait depicting Trump with late Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln looking over his shoulder, which he said was spotted "on the walls of the West Wing."
JIM WATSON/AFP via GettyA painting of Donald Trump hangs in the White House Grand Foyer where Barack Obama's portrait was located
Trump showed off another recent painting of himself, the one pictured above, while posing for a photo with European leaders during a Ukraine summit at the White House on Monday, Aug. 18.
White House communications adviser Margo Martin shared a video on X of Trump pointing out the artistic depiction of his July 2024 assassination attempt, which she called his "Butler 'Fight, Fight, Fight' painting."
The painting, which has hung in the White House since April, shows him raising his fist while surrounded by Secret Service agents after a bullet grazed his ear at a rally in Butler, Pa.. "That was not a great day!" Trump joked to the group.
“That was not a great day!”
President @realDonaldTrump shows the European Leaders his Butler ‘Fight, Fight, Fight’ painting pic.twitter.com/fGdBKhLjxj
— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) August 18, 2025
Other additions to the White House walls during Trump's second term have included an unorthodox painting of Trump's face overlaid with an American flag — which was crammed in between portraits of two former first ladies — as well as a new presidential portrait that bears a striking resemblance to his August 2023 mug shot. A framed New York Post cover showing his actual mug shot was also spotted on a wall just outside the Oval Office.
Chip Somodevilla/GettyAnother new painting of Donald Trump hangs in the East Wing where Hillary Clinton's first lady portrait was
The latest Trump artwork revealed by Gorka comes just a week after a White House official confirmed to PEOPLE that the president had broken precedent to move Barack Obama's official portrait out of public view.
White House tradition says that the two most recent presidential portraits should hang prominently on either side of the Grand Foyer for members of the public to appreciate during tours and events. Since President Joe Biden's White House portrait has not yet been completed, the two most recent portraits are of Obama and George W. Bush.
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Back in April, the president swapped Obama's portrait with the "Fight, Fight, Fight" assassination attempt painting. Now, Obama's portrait has been moved even further from public view, to the top of the Grand Staircase.
The stairwell, which leads up to the president's private living area, is off-limits to visitors and partially obstructed from public view. CNN reported that Obama's portrait in particular is "firmly out of view" for visitors.
Insiders also told the outlet that Trump signs off on nearly all aesthetic changes to the White House, no matter how small.
A spokesperson for Obama declined to comment on the recent change.
The portraits aren't the only major change that Trump has made since taking office for a second time. He's also come under fire from critics for his gaudy makeover of the Oval Office.
An April report in The Wall Street Journal revealed that the president had enlisted his "gold guy," cabinetmaker John Icart, to create golden borders for his political portraits, gilded carvings for the fireplace mantel and a gold Trump crest in a doorway.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via GettyUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office on Aug. 18, 2025More
Musician Jack White slammed the Oval Office's new look in an Instagram rant following Trump's Aug. 18 meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"Look at how disgusting Trump has transformed the historic White House," White wrote. "It's now a vulgar, gold-leafed and gaudy, professional wrestler's dressing room. Can't wait for the UFC match on the front lawn too, he's almost fully achieved the movie 'Idiocracy.' "
"Look at his disgusting taste, would you even buy a used car from this conman, let alone give him the nuclear codes?" he continued. "A gold-plated Trump bible would look perfect up on that mantle with a pair of Trump shoes on either side, wouldn't it? What an embarrassment to American history."
Opinion | Donald Trump's new White House portrait makes perfect sense
Zeeshan Aleem
Wed, August 20, 2025
MSNBC
White House adviser Sebastian Gorka unveiled a new White House painting of President Donald Trump on X on Monday, and promised there were "more to come." The portrait itself — along with a host of other changes that Trump is making to White House decor — capture Trump's political project far better than he may have intended.
The portrait depicts Trump with a stern-looking expression and looking remarkably trim in an overcoat. The painting also conveys the president in motion — he appears to be striding down a hall between two rows of American flags. The most striking feature of the work, however, is not the subject, but the backdrop: Streaks of orange leap and glow behind Trump. It's difficult not to see it as fire.
A Trump supporter might look at this painting and see things to like. Trump, a man of action, looking uncharacteristically fit, forging a new nation in the crucible of chaos that is modern America. For those not on the MAGA train, it's easy to see the painting as self-parody — Trump is not taming the chaos, but authoring it, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake as he transforms the republic into an inferno.
Trump appears to have a fixation on paying homage to himself in the White House. In April NBC News reported that the White House "moved the official portrait of former President Barack Obama to a new location in the building’s Grand Foyer, replacing it with a painting of President Donald Trump with his fist raised in the air right after last year’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania." That Trump painting took the spot "traditionally reserved for the most recent official presidential portrait." (Former President Joe Biden does not yet have an official portrait.)
The White House also unveiled a new official photographic portrait of Trump in June, a close-up that replaced the official photograph released just months earlier, at the time of his second inauguration. In both of those photographs, Trump glares at the viewer against a dark backdrop, in contrast to Trump's smiling visage in his official photographic portrait in his first term. It's important, it seems, to get the scowl just right.
White House adviser Sebastian Gorka unveiled a new White House painting of President Donald Trump on X on Monday, and promised there were "more to come." The portrait itself — along with a host of other changes that Trump is making to White House decor — capture Trump's political project far better than he may have intended.
The portrait depicts Trump with a stern-looking expression and looking remarkably trim in an overcoat. The painting also conveys the president in motion — he appears to be striding down a hall between two rows of American flags. The most striking feature of the work, however, is not the subject, but the backdrop: Streaks of orange leap and glow behind Trump. It's difficult not to see it as fire.
A Trump supporter might look at this painting and see things to like. Trump, a man of action, looking uncharacteristically fit, forging a new nation in the crucible of chaos that is modern America. For those not on the MAGA train, it's easy to see the painting as self-parody — Trump is not taming the chaos, but authoring it, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake as he transforms the republic into an inferno.
Trump appears to have a fixation on paying homage to himself in the White House. In April NBC News reported that the White House "moved the official portrait of former President Barack Obama to a new location in the building’s Grand Foyer, replacing it with a painting of President Donald Trump with his fist raised in the air right after last year’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania." That Trump painting took the spot "traditionally reserved for the most recent official presidential portrait." (Former President Joe Biden does not yet have an official portrait.)
The White House also unveiled a new official photographic portrait of Trump in June, a close-up that replaced the official photograph released just months earlier, at the time of his second inauguration. In both of those photographs, Trump glares at the viewer against a dark backdrop, in contrast to Trump's smiling visage in his official photographic portrait in his first term. It's important, it seems, to get the scowl just right.
President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Monday. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP)
Beyond the apparent obsession with representations of himself, Trump is keen on changing the White House to match his gaudy personal aesthetic. He has blanketed the Oval Office in gold ornaments and gold trim. And NBC News reported in July that Trump is replacing the part of the East Wing traditionally used for the first lady’s offices with a giant ballroom, a renovation effort that would mark the “biggest transformation of the White House complex since Harry Truman’s day,” referring to when Truman added a balcony to the White House. According to NBC News, Trump checks in on construction work in the White House weekly, spending up to half an hour asking the workers questions.
It is unsurprising that a former reality TV star and poor real estate developer whose success relies on constant hype that is never fulfilled would be preoccupied with turning the White House into a temple dedicated to his brand. That doesn't make it any less vulgar.
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