\n<\/p>\n
By<\/span> Doug Mills<\/span> and Larry Buchanan<\/span> <\/p>\n Doug Mills has photographed the White House for more than 40 years. Larry Buchanan wrote about the art in the White House during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n March 2, 2026 <\/p>\n Since moving back in, President Trump has significantly altered the \u201cPeople\u2019s House.\u201d East Wing: gone. Oval Office: maximalized. Rose Garden: Mar-a-lago-ified. And the art? Lots of Trump.<\/p>\n Over the last year, The New York Times has captured at least nine paintings, posters, memes, and even a mugshot outside the Oval Office, that Mr. Trump added throughout the historic space.<\/p>\n Many of the selections are gifts from his supporters that highlight his political stature and reinforce the idea that Mr. Trump is invincible.<\/p>\n All presidents or first ladies add to and shuffle the art in the White House.<\/p>\n Barack Obama brought in abstract paintings.<\/p>\n Family Dining Room, 2015.<\/span> Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n George W. Bush decorated with images from his Texas roots.<\/p>\n Oval Office, 2007.<\/span> Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n In Mr. Trump\u2019s first term, Melania Trump added a sculpture by Isamu Noguchi to the Rose Garden.<\/p>\n Rose Garden, 2020.<\/span> Pool photo by Chris Kleponis<\/span><\/p>\n But never before has a sitting president displayed so much of his own image on the White House walls.<\/p>\n There is an \u201cassertion of symbolic power that he wants to be on view essentially everywhere in that space,\u201d said Cara Finnegan, a communication professor at the University of Illinois and author of \u201cPhotographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital.\u201d<\/p>\n Even outside his current residence, Mr. Trump\u2019s visage has proliferated in unexpected places \u2014 on banners hanging from government buildings, on National Parks passes and on social media, where he has been likened to a king. There has also been talk of a U.S. Treasury-minted coin with Mr. Trump on both sides.<\/p>\n In recent decades, each president\u2019s official White House portrait has been unveiled in a ceremony hosted by his successor.<\/p>\n The Carters hosted the Fords:<\/p>\n East Room, 1978.<\/span> Associated Press<\/span><\/p>\n The Clintons hosted the Bushes:<\/p>\n East Room, 1995.<\/span> Stephen Crowley\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n And the Bushes hosted the Clintons:<\/p>\n East Room, 2004.<\/span> Tim Sloan\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n The mood has often been lighthearted, with political party tensions melting away.<\/p>\n \u201cI am pleased that my portrait brings an interesting symmetry to the White House collection,\u201d George W. Bush joked in a ceremony hosted by the Obamas. \u201cIt now starts and ends with a George W.\u201d<\/p>\n In a break with tradition, Mr. Trump did not schedule a ceremony for the unveiling of the Obamas\u2019 portraits during his first term. Joe Biden later did, in a ceremony with a \u201cWelcome Home!\u201d vibe.<\/p>\n Typically, the latest available presidential portrait \u2014 often a realistic oil painting \u2014 hangs in the main entrance hall, where heads of state are welcomed.<\/p>\n The Obama portrait was in the spot until April \u2026<\/p>\n Cross Hall in the Executive Residence, 2024.<\/span> Tom Brenner for The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026 when Mr. Trump replaced it with this painting by Marc Lipp, a Florida pop artist, last April.<\/p>\n Cross Hall in the Executive Residence, 2025.<\/span> Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n It depicts a striking moment in 2024 when a bloodied Mr. Trump pumped his fist in defiance, soon after being shot at by a would-be assassin during a campaign event.<\/p>\n Presidential historians have criticized the departure from convention.<\/p>\n Though Mr. Trump had a portrait commissioned for the Smithsonian\u2019s American Presidents collection after his first term, none was confirmed for the permanent White House collection, and the White House said that this is where that portrait would have hung.<\/p>\n It is not totally<\/em> unprecedented for a president to hang a painting of himself in the White House during his term. Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Grover Cleveland all did, according to the White House Historical Association. But more often than not, paintings of presidents and first ladies are hung after they have left office, historians said.<\/p>\n In what has become something of a muse for many of the president\u2019s artistic supporters, there are at least three other depictions of the fist-pumping scene in the White House.<\/p>\n The image \u201cis in people\u2019s garages when I walk around my neighborhood,\u201d said Leslie Hahner, a Texas resident and communication professor at Baylor University, who studies visual political culture. \u201cPeople love that image.\u201d<\/p>\n Behind the Oval Office, one is in a small room that houses Trump merchandise:<\/p>\n Oval Office study, 2025.<\/span> Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Another was seen in the West Wing next to a \u201cStill Life with Fruit\u201d painting from 1850:<\/p>\n West Wing, 2025.<\/span> Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n A statue form was spotted in the Oval Office:<\/p>\n Oval Office, 2025.<\/span> Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n The sculptor, Stan Watts, told a Utah TV station last year that he believes the president was saved by God that day. Many of Mr. Trump\u2019s Christian supporters have echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n At least two works by a self-described \u201cChristian worship artist,\u201d Vanessa Horabuena, are among Mr. Trump\u2019s White House collection. He has called Ms. Horabuena, who often paints live in front of an audience, \u201cone of the greatest artists anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, she painted a portrait of Mr. Trump at a booth at the Conservative Political Action Conference. When he saw it, he asked to meet her, Ms. Horabuena\u2019s representative said. She most recently painted Mr. Trump live at a New Year\u2019s Eve party at Mar-A-Lago.<\/p>\n One of her portraits was spotted in the Cabinet room in January.<\/p>\n It shows Mr. Trump, his eyes closed, in front of a mountain with a small cross on the top:<\/p>\n Cabinet Room, 2026.<\/span> Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Ms. Horabuena hand-delivered it to the White House, according to her website.<\/p>\n Her other painting shows the president walking through a phalanx of flags. It was seen hanging prominently in a hallway leading to the Cabinet Room and the Oval Office:<\/p>\n West Wing, 2025.<\/span> Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s positioned as this embattled warrior in a lot of these images,\u201d Dr. Hahner said.<\/p>\n Historical figures Mr. Trump adulates are co-stars in some of the art he has chosen.<\/p>\n In an image created by the team of White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, Mr. Trump is pictured with William McKinley and Henry Clay, who, like the president, championed the use of tariffs:<\/p>\n West Wing, 2025.<\/span> Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Here, Mr. Trump is with two other Republican presidents, Abraham Lincoln (to whom he has compared himself) and Ronald Reagan (whom he is a fan of):<\/p>\n West Wing, 2025.<\/span> Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Titled \u201cGreat American Patriots,\u201d the piece was painted by Dick Bobnick, an illustrator and Trump supporter from Minnesota. He said he mailed several prints to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but he had no idea his work was on the White House walls until a USA Today reporter called him about it.<\/p>\n \u201cI could hardly believe it,\u201d said Mr. Bobnick. (He said the print is now his best-seller.)<\/p>\n If not in portraits, Mr. Trump\u2019s image is reflected on mirrors that he has added to the White House complex.<\/p>\n Two are in the Oval Office \u2026<\/p>\n Oval Office, 2025.<\/span> Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026 making his image visible from the Resolute Desk.<\/p>\n Oval Office, 2025.<\/span> Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n The mirrors, the portraits and the gilding mimic the look of his properties, like Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate.<\/p>\n Mar-a-Lago, 2016.<\/span> Eric Thayer for The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTrump is obsessed with his image,\u201d Dr. Hahner said. \u201cAnd he is so controlling of his image.\u201d<\/p>\n One portrait seen in the White House has become a communication tool between Mr. Trump and his supporters in the real world.<\/p>\n This is his social media profile picture.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s Truth Social account, 2025.<\/span> <\/p>\n It was seen last October hanging between former first ladies Laura Bush and Barbara Bush in the now-demolished East Wing:<\/p>\n Booksellers Hall in the now-demolished East Wing, 2025.<\/span> Cheriss May for The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n The portrait was painted by Lena Ruseva, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, who goes by the name MAGALANGELO. Mr. Trump invited her to his Bedminster golf club in 2022, and she gave it to him as a birthday gift.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time social media or the news quotes the president and I see my artwork alongside it, I feel proud and grateful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For a time, the same portrait hung next to Hillary Clinton, his political rival and a former first lady.<\/p>\n Booksellers Hall in the now-demolished East Wing, 2025.<\/span> Alex Brandon\/Associated Press<\/span><\/p>\n Supporters at that time lauded the placement on social media:<\/p>\n This example of a positive feedback loop demonstrates how Mr. Trump has used social media to redefine the presidency and presidential communication. Ms. Ruseva\u2019s portrait was used on social media, hung up in the real world, then photographed and put back on social media by supporters who praised the president.<\/p>\n When Mr. Trump was elected to his first term in 2016, Dr. Hahner said that scholars referred to him as the first \u201cmeme president.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Trump and his internet fans are used to a meme culture based on irony, and rehashing, repurposing and remixing existing images. The collection of White House artwork \u2014 much of it originating from his supporters \u2014 sits in an uncanny valley between realism and meme-ism, Dr. Hahner said.<\/p>\n Like memes that multiply, Mr. Trump\u2019s image has been reproduced in other ways, outside the White House.<\/p>\n Last month, a huge banner with Mr. Trump\u2019s face was draped outside the Justice Department headquarters \u2026<\/p>\n Justice Department headquarters, 2026.<\/span> Eric Lee for The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Last year, similar signage was strung over the Labor Department building \u2026<\/p>\n Labor Department building, 2025.<\/span> Eric Lee for The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026 and the Agriculture Department building (this one, alongside Lincoln).<\/p>\n Agriculture Department building, 2025.<\/span> Eric Lee for The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n At his request, Mr. Trump\u2019s portrait was recently updated at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Portrait Gallery:<\/p>\n National Portrait Gallery, 2026.<\/span> Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n Still, Mr. Trump wants more. The White House has suggested that the National Portrait Gallery add a separate section for Trump-related art.<\/p>\n \t\t Break with tradition<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Flags, fists and faith from fans<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Trump everywhere, all the time<\/strong>