President Donald Trump is taking heat after he replaced an official White House portrait of former President Barack Obama with a painting that shows the famous “Fight, fight, fight” aftermath of a would-be assassin’s attempt on Trump’s life last year.
The New York Post reported that the new Trump painting, based on now-iconic images captured by New York Times photographer Doug Mills after a gunshot grazed Trump’s ear in Butler, Pa., now hangs in a prime spot in the Grand Foyer of the East Wing of the White House.
The White House said that the painting was done by Mark Lipp and was donated by Andrew Pollack.
Look: First view of Trump’s new artwork at White House
The painting was created by artist Marc Lipp and gifted to the White Househttps://t.co/aWqHkJnKuN
— Gulf News (@gulf_news) April 16, 2025
Pollack is an author and school safety advocate whose 18-year-old daughter, Meadow, was among the 17 students killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
The New York Times reported that the Trump painting “drew criticism from some presidential historians, who could not recall another president hanging a painting of himself during his term in the White House.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, responded that the “executive mansion is the president’s home, and he has the right to make changes as other presidents have in the past.”
Leavitt said, “Only The New York Times would find a problem with this.”
But Ted Widmer, a presidential historian at the City University of New York, told the Times that the new portrait was “tacky.”
Barbara A. Perry, a presidential studies professor at the University of Virginia, said: “This would be viewed as lacking in taste in days gone by.”
Trump was grazed by a bullet as he addressed an outdoor campaign rally on July 13, 2024.
After being helped to his feet by Secret Service agents, a bloodied Trump pumped his fist at the crowd and was heard to say, “Fight, fight, fight.”
The Obama portrait was moved just across the hall from its original spot.
“Obama remains in the Entrance Hall of the White House State Floor,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields wrote on X, per the New York Post.
Fields’ post shows the Obama painting hanging in a prestigious spot overlooking a Steinway grand piano that once belonged to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
