The White House has suggested that the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) create a dedicated section to display multiple images of US president Donald Trump, expanding beyond the single official portrait traditionally shown during a sitting president’s term. The idea first came up during a 19 December visit to the museum by Abby Jones, the acting chief of protocol at the State Department, and the White House photographer Daniel Torok, according to The New York Times.
Officials noted that the president regularly receives art from supporters and suggested that a curated selection could be exhibited within the NPG. Contacted by The Art Newspaper, spokespersons for the Smithsonian and NPG declined to comment; no formal proposal has been submitted, sources close to the institution told the Times. A spokesperson for the White House said the president receives “an unprecedented amount of beautiful artwork from patriotic Americans” and that it is important these works be “showcased throughout the halls of our Nation’s Capital”.
The proposal would depart from curatorial precedent. While the NPG’s America’s Presidents exhibition has included multiple depictions of figures such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, those expanded displays were generally installed after the presidents had left office and were long dead. Since the 1990s, the gallery has presented a photographic likeness during a president’s tenure, later replacing it with a commissioned painted portrait unveiled after their final term.
Last month, the gallery replaced a previous photograph of President Trump with a black-and-white image by Torok, reportedly at the president’s request. At the same time, wall text referencing Trump’s two impeachments during his first term was removed following objections from the White House. Spokespersons for the NPG said the changes were part of a scheduled update to the exhibition and that the history of presidential impeachments remains represented elsewhere in Smithsonian institutions.
Relations between the administration and the Smithsonian have been strained since Trump began his second term. The White House has criticised what it describes as ideological bias in some museum content and has requested detailed information about programming, planning and finances at eight Smithsonian museums, including the NPG. Last year, the president attempted to fire the gallery’s director, Kim Sajet; Smithsonian officials reaffirmed the institution’s autonomy over personnel matters, though Sajet later resigned, citing the institution’s best interests.
Under longstanding policy, presidential portrait commissions are not unveiled until after the end of a president’s final term. A portrait of Trump by the artist Ronald Sherr was commissioned following Trump’s first term, and was accepted by the NPG in 2022, according to The New York Times. However, by then Trump had already announced plans to run for president a third time, so Sherr’s portrait of Trump was never put on display. Now the White House is hoping the NPG will commission another portrait of Trump.
“President Trump was appreciative of the portrait created for his 45th term, and looks forward to seeing the completion of a portrait that will encapsulate both his 45th and 47th presidential terms,” Davis Ingle, a White House spokesperson, told the Times. Spokespersons for the NPG and Smithsonian declined to comment. Members of the administration told the Times that the president wants a new portrait that better reflects his entire presidency; the Sherr portrait, which has never been publicly displayed, reportedly shows Trump at a rally, with the White House in the background.
Sherr—who also painted the NPG’s portraits of George H.W. Bush and Colin Powell—died in 2022 shortly after completing Trump’s portrait commission. His widow, Lois Sherr, told the Times: “What sets this portrait by Ron apart is that he captured Trump’s movement, energy and feeling of absolute resolve.”
