*President Trump will not be unveiling Barack Obama’s official White House portrait, a tradition that will likely be skipped for the first time in decades.
The decision comes as the petty occupier of the White House accuses Obama of unsubstantiated and unspecified crimes.
“Presidential portrait unveilings are one of the three events that bring former presidents together. This level of animosity between a sitting president and his predecessors is unprecedented in modern history,” Kate Andersen Brower, author of “Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump,” told CNN.
Now, we’re not calling the president of the United States a white supremacist, but like most racist white males, Trump keeps Black men on the brain — specifically Barack Obama.
The former “Apprentice” star has lashed out at his predecessor nearly daily over the past three-and-a-half years.
Jamil Smith, senior writer at Rolling Stone, noted on Twitter: “Trump refusing to reveal Obama’s presidential portrait isn’t “the latest casualty of the political divide.” It is, at best, a tantrum. At worst? An evangelist of white supremacy refuses, yet again, to allow that anyone but a white man can hold that office.”
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So #Trump, who stoked “birtherism” lunacy v the first Black #POTUS, was sued 4 house discrimination & vilified ppl of color won’t hang #Obama portrait. Anyone surprised? “White House portrait ceremony may be the latest casualty of the political divide” https://t.co/tVD61hVbLl
— Maya Wiley (@mayawiley) May 19, 2020
The portrait unveiling ceremony has been a White House tradition for decades. As noted by NBC.com, if Trump wins a second term in November, it could be 2025 before Obama’s portrait is displayed at the White House.
“We may have our differences politically,” Obama said when he hosted former President George W. Bush for his portrait unveiling in 2012, “but the presidency transcends those differences.”
“It is a somewhat daunting experience to have your portrait hung in the White House,” former first lady Hillary Clinton said at the unveiling of her and former President Bill Clinton’s portraits in 2004. “It is something that really does, more than any other act, sort of put your place in history in this building for all the ages and all the people who come through here to see and reflect upon.”
She added that when she was first lady, she took “great solace from many of the portraits of the former first ladies, because it is a very difficult role.”
The White House Historical Association noted on its website that all presidents since Jimmy Carter — who opted not to have a ceremony — have returned to the White House for an unveiling.
“These ceremonies are often bipartisan events with warm greetings and collegial speeches exchanged by the president and their predecessor,” the website reads.
“You’ve got a president who’s talking about putting the previous one in legal jeopardy, to put it nicely. We have not seen a situation like that in history,” presidential historian Michael Beschloss said. “It takes antipathy of a new president for a predecessor to a new level.”
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