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- President Biden has put portraits of former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush back on public display in the White House.
- Former President Donald Trump replaced the portraits with two former Republican presidents.
- They are now back in the Grand Foyer of the White House, with portraits of other recent presidents, CNN reported.
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The White House has put two portraits of former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush back on prominent display after former President Donald Trump had them removed, CNN reported.
The portraits are now back on display in the Grand Foyer of the White House, an official told CNN, marking a return to tradition which sees portraits of recent presidents displayed in the most prominent position.
The Grand Foyer is used for official occasions including state dinners and formal welcoming ceremonies.
The move comes after the Trump administration reportedly replaced the two portraits in July last year with portraits of former Republican presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William McKinley.
The portraits of Clinton and Bush were not removed altogether but removed to the Old Family Dining room, a “barely used” part of the White House building and was not included in official tours that took place before the coronavirus pandemic, an official told CNN at the time.
In keeping with tradition, Biden also redesigned the Oval Office upon entering the White House.
He replaced a portrait of President Andrew Jackson with a portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and displaying pictures of a number of progressive figures in the room.
They included Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks.
He also removed a button that Donald Trump reportedly used to summon Diet Coke on a silver platter.
Biden’s latest move to restore portraits of Clinton and Bush came months after President Trump reportedly refused to hold an unveiling ceremony for the portrait of former President Barack Obama, marking a 40-year break from tradition.
First-term presidents traditionally held ceremonies in the East Room to unveil portraits of their predecessors, as Obama did for President George W. Bush in 2012. President Obama was also said to be uninterested in attending such an event.
Obama’s official portrait has still not been unveiled.
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