March 24, 2025 10:26 AM UTC

Trump Just Made Colorado's Capitol Portrait Of Himself Famous

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: The Denver Post reports that the five-year-old portrait of President Donald Trump at the Colorado Capitol is coming down after Trump expressed displeasure over his soft, pasty, flat-combover appearance:

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 taken down after the Capitol closes Monday night, legislative staff said in an email.

It 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.”

Truly the nation’s most pressing business being done here. Original post follows.

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The week in Colorado political news is off to an odd start this Monday morning after President Donald Trump fired off a “Truth” on his pet social media site Truth Social attacking, of all things, the portrait of himself that’s been hanging in the Colorado Capitol’s presidential portrait gallery since 2019. As The Hill’s Lauren Irwin reports:

“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 a post Sunday on Truth Social. “The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one [of] me is truly the worst. She must have lost her talent as she got older.”

Trump said he would prefer not having a picture at all than having the current one on display. He said many Coloradans have called the state looking to get it changed or removed.

“I am speaking on their behalf to the Radical Left Governor, Jared Polis, who is extremely weak on Crime, in particular with respect to Tren de Aragua, which practically took over Aurora (Don’t worry, we saved it!), to take it down,” Trump said. “Jared should be ashamed of himself.”

So, the first problem with Trump’s tirade against his Colorado presidential portrait is that Jared Polis was not yet governor when the portrait was commissioned back in 2018. As readers may recall, the spot on the wall where Trump’s portrait was supposed to be sat vacant for well over a year past Trump’s first inauguration, reportedly due to a lack of interest in funding its production. The funds were ultimately raised by Republican Sen. Kevin Grantham after a well-publicized prank at the Capitol in which a portrait of Trump’s hero Russian President Vladimir Putin was placed where Trump’s portrait was supposed to be, recounted today by the UK Guardian:

Despite Trump’s criticism of Polis for the painting, it was actually unveiled by a Republican group in 2019. A former Republican state senator had crowdfunded nearly $10,000 to commission the painting, according to Colorado news station KUSA.

Trump did not have a portrait hanging in the Colorado state capitol for his first presidency, which began in 2017. In 2018, a liberal political activist placed a large portrait of Vladimir Putin – whom Trump openly admires – in the empty space, but it was quickly removed by capitol staff.

That prompted then Republican state senator Kevin Grantham to raise money through a GoFundMe campaign to hang Trump’s portrait in the state capitol.

The final portrait was selected by the Capitol Building Advisory Committee, a joint standing committee that by all accounts really believed it to be the best of several proposed designs you can see here. Choice #4 even features an aspect of the frightening Big Brother scowl Trump chose for his official second-term presidential photo. It’s worth noting that the Colorado Republican Party launched a fundraiser last December to pay for a second Trump portrait, but that was in honor of Trump’s second non-consecutive term. Trump may have just gaving this grift fundraising campaign for the financially embattled Colorado GOP a new lease on life.

If Trump does manage to prevail on local officials to swap out his portrait for one better suited to the president’s vanity, the current painting could become a real collector’s item in its own right, like an error penny. The more Trump expresses his disdain for it, the aftermarket value goes up bigly–so whatever happens, don’t throw it away!

At the very least, the simple fact that Trump hates this portrait will make it extremely popular with his opponents. Watch for it from protest signs to late-night TV.