Trump slams his portrait in Colorado’s state capitol and blames ‘radical left’ Colorado Governor Jared Polis
President Donald Trump said that Colorado Governor Jared Polis should “be ashamed of himself” for hanging a “purposefully distorted” presidential portrait in the State Capitol building.
Colorado Republicans raised over $10,000 to commission the portrait by artist Sarah Boardman, which was unveiled in 2019 during the president’s first term.
In a late-night Truth Social rant, Trump took aim at Polis, a Democrat, and Broadman, who he claimed had lost her touch after making former President Barack Obama look “wonderful” in a commission years earlier.
“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 began on Sunday evening.
“The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst. She must have lost her talent as she got older.”
Along with his own calls to remove the painting, Trump alleged that furious Colorado natives had complained about the portrait and urged the state to pull it down.
The president seized on the moment to take a swipe at Polis and his policies, referencing members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which had a presence in Aurora, Colorado last year.
“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,” he continued. “Jared should be ashamed of himself!”
A spokesperson for the governor’s office thanked the president for his interest in the State Capitol and its artwork.
“Gov. Polis was surprised to learn the President of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado State Capitol and its artwork,” they told The Hill. “We appreciate the President and everyone’s interest in our capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience.”
Polis, however, wasn’t behind the painting which was commissioned in 2018, months before he took office.
Earlier that year, a political activist had snuck into the State Capitol with help from an advisor to Colorado’s Democratic House Speaker Crisanta Duran.
A large painting of Russian President Vladimir Putin was erected where Trump’s portrait was meant to hang.
It came after Republicans reportedly were unable to raise the funds required to commission the picture of Trump.
After the stunt, Kevin Grantham, a Republican who served as president of the Colorado Senate, raised more than $10,000 through the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe for the portrait.
After unveiling the image of Trump in August 2019, Boardman predicted that her work would stand the test of 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,” she told Colorado Public Radio at the time.
In a separate interview with the Colorado Times Reporter, the artist said she doesn’t let her personal politics influence her work.
“When I start to paint a portrait, it is the portrait, likeness, and ‘essence’ of the subject which I strive to portray,” she said. “Any personal feelings about any subject are not relevant and are left outside the studio per my training to ‘leave those emotions at the door’.”
It’s not the first blunt assessment Trump has delivered over a portrait of himself.
In a moment of self-deprecation while sitting in a New York courtroom in his civil fraud trial in December 2023, Trump made a scathing remark to one artist hired by news organizations to capture the inside of the no-photos-allowed courtroom.
“It looks like I need to lose some weight,” Trump told the artist as he gestured at his neck, they told The Independent.
