President Trump is an important figure in American history, perhaps a transformational leader, and definitely a crucial one whose success or failure will have an enormous effect on the fate and future of the United States of America.
Thus it is all the more alarming that the man has so many Achilles heels that he could be some hind of monstrous human-arachnid hybrid.
Take that portrait above… please! Yes, it stinks. I don’t know who painted it and I don’t care, but somehow this obscure painting, hanging in the Colorado State Capitol building with portraits of the other U.S. Presidents, is the object of our President’s ire.
“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 the other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,” Trump birched on Truth Social. “In any event, I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one.”
Oh for the love of Mike, man, grow the hell up! Who cares about your portrait in Colorado? With everything else going on, with the Axis trying to foment domestic terrorism and rogue judges trying to kneecap your policies, why are you complaining about a crummy piece of art? Sure, that doesn’t look like you—it reminds me a bit of Millard Fillmore—but so what?
I have criticized Jethroe Gibbs of “NCIS,” Nathan Brittles of “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” and John Wayne for promoting the false ethical standard, “Never apologize, it’s a sign of weakness,” but that’s a minor misconception compared to the leader of the free world throwing a hissy fit over an oil painting. Trump’s insecurity, narcissism, obsession with meaningless symbols of popularity and personal slights constantly leads him into unforced errors, blunders and needless controversies. He doesn’t have the luxury of indulging these infantile habits. If this life-long weakness doesn’t sabotage his ability to accomplish his mission, it will just be moral luck.
The President’s vanity is one of many gifts to the foes who are determined to halt and destroy him.
Ethics Alarms 
I’d love to see a comparison of other state capitol presidential portraits and other presidential portraits.
Since it’s not that hard to hire an artist who knows what they’re doing,and subdue we know democrats aren’t above this there’s a reasonably high chance the artist was commissioned to do an offensive job.
“since” not “subdue”
This is only to say- unnecessarily or unjustifiably provoking or offending someone is unethical just as unnecessarily acting out against or disproportionally to an offense or provocation is unethical.
Now THAT’s a conspiracy theory. No artist wants a bad example of her work hanging in public. If Winston’s infamous lost portrait wasn’t intentionally bad, and it wasn’t, why would anyone think Trump’s portrait was anything but an honest botch?
The portrait is the same one that was hanging during his first term. Only brought to like because of social media now.
Evidently the portrait was commissioned for $10,000 by Republican donors and the artist also did Obama’s (which is of similar quality).
Evidently they were able to find someone to do a more flattering rendition of Biden.
And while it looks to be a bad guess- understand that Democrats and their battalions of acolytes have put us in a place where such a question is reasonable.
His opponents lack the conpetence to exploit his vanity.
Looking at the image here I cannot tell what problems exist other than he looks a bit younger and a bit rounder face. I found another image of the portrait that makes him look pouty so I could understand his lack of appreciation.
If you listen to the remarks being made by speakers it was clear to me that they made a point to paint him as undesirable as a person but they were doing so to pay homage to the office of the President. One of the speakers could not hide the smirk as he said “scowl” behind his goatee. It is possible that Trump’s ire was in reaction to the speaker’s condescending tone regarding Trump.
While it is not beyond the realm of possibilities that the image was distorted on purpose given the politics of the state, it does not seem to me that that was the case. I don’t see him with a pitchfork and horns so it was probably an innocent attempt to capture the image.
I agree that there are far more important issues that should be his focus but knowing his workload he may have had a few minutes between dealing with partisan judges who want gang members returned to the US and Zelenski changing his mind again about a cease fire and demanding $250 billion the time he wrote that.
He’s doubtless the first and only sitting president to do his own posts on social media. He seems to post on whatever crosses his mind. I suppose doing so is unpresidential, but what are the rules for social media posting by presidents? This is unprecedented. It’s what the internet hath wrought.
I like Ann Althouse’s take on the portrait:
“It reminds me of all the many portraits of 18th century Americans you see strewn about the walls of lesser museums. Use AI to redo the clothing and he’ll look like a random Framer, rendered by a semi-primitive artisan in the days before photography.”
What did people think of Franklin Roosevelt’s “fireside chats?” Isn’t that what his informal radio address were called? Were they deemed unpresidential?
I’ve listened to some of the tapes. Like everything FDR did for public consumption, they were masterful (and also scripted). Playing father to the nation. If Trump used his social media the way FDR used radio, he’d be 100% more popular and effective.
I’d say the painting can best be described as “amateurish.”
I thought it might have been by Hunter Biden…
Funny, I didn’t see that from AA, but it’s what I was reminded of as well, and I almost mentioned it but it was tangential to the point. Trump styles himself as a winner, but whining is for losers, and he does way, way, WAY too much whining. Effective leadership requires self-restraint and keep one’s eye on the prize. This kind of stuff is “Look! Squirrel!!” The amazing thing is that it hasn’t hurt him more than it has.
We’ll never known until we get Colorado’s official portraits of the first 5 presidents.
Upon consideration, I have decided that the portrait looks a lot like Herbert Hoover, which adds a bit to the remote possibility that the thing was deliberately distorted. There is, after all, no way to make rump look credibly like Richard Nixon…
How long before we find out that the artist of the commission is actually a highschool art teacher who was inspired by “The Art of the Deal” and followed Trump’s approach of licensing his name so that the artist was actually selling highschool student work under the commissioned use of the artist’s name?
as soon as a well respected journalist can find an anonymous source to use for the bullshit headline.
I would love to comment on this post but that story about the Chinese guy with his wife’s hand stuck in his mouth has completely occupied my mind. I mean, how does that happen? Why, oh why, did it happen? When did hubby get the bright idea, “uh, dear? I got this idea here: I’ll open my mouth and you stick your fist in it. Let’s see how long i can keep you hand in my mouth!” With reasoning like that, why is everyone worried about Chines world domination? I mean . . . sheesh.
jvb
And this is the U.S.’s dire rival for international dominance…
John,
Doesn’t that same argument apply to the US when we look at all the “Florida man…” stories?
Well, yeah . . . but . . . Oh, hell! The whole damn world has lost its mind.
jvb
We call this STDNM