Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait will be unveiled at a White House ceremony in September, reports the Associated Press.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says the ceremony will be “very exciting.” The last time a presidential portrait was unveiled was in 2012 when former president George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush had their portraits unveiled.
Obama’s portrait was supposed to have been unveiled in 2020, but sources familiar with the matter said that Obama had “no interest in participating in the post-presidency rite of passage” while Trump was in office — breaking a 40-year tradition. This was hardly the first tradition that Obama had broken. Most presidents, upon leaving office, abstain from criticizing their successors. Obama, however, was a vocal critic of Trump and his policies.
Of course, Trump was by no means shedding tears over Obama’s refusal to participate in an unveiling ceremony since, during the 2016 campaign, Obama used the power of the federal government to spy on his campaign and later attempted to undermine the incoming administration.
After refusing to have a portrait ceremony at the White House while Trump was president, Barack Obama is finally having an unveiling in September. Here's our cartoon from May 2020 about Obama's initial refusal.https://t.co/AK6KFWqWuf pic.twitter.com/5wB479ShZr
— Margolis & Cox (@MargolisandCox) July 29, 2022
Let’s hope that Obama’s official White House portrait is better than the ridiculous portrait that left-wing artist Kehinde Wiley painted for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
But then again, another ridiculous portrait would be fitting for Barack Obama.
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