Despite being seen cozying up with each other as recently as the funeral of the late Jimmy Carter, former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump’s relationship is icy at best.
Things have gotten colder in recent weeks after Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered prosecutors to begin a grand jury probe into allegations that top Obama administration officials manufactured intelligence about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Now things just got completely frozen after Trump’s latest move against Obama.
According to multiple reports, the official White House portrait of Obama has been moved to a decidedly less prominent position — at the direction of Trump himself.
Reports from inside the White House say that Trump directed White House staff to move the Obama portrait to the top of the Grand Staircase, where it will now be out of view from thousands of visitors who tour the White House each day.
It’s not the first time the Obama painting has been repositioned.
In April, the Obama portrait was moved across the Grand Foyer of the White House and replaced with a painting of an iconic scene of Trump surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The removal and repositioning of Obama’s portrait was not the only piece of art moved to another area of the White House as reports say that portraits of former President George W. Bush and his father, George H. W. Bush, have also been moved.
During Trump’s first term, he replaced portraits of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in the Grand Foyer, choosing instead to highlight William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
According to former White House curator Betty Monkman, the tradition of presidential portraits dates back to the 1960s under first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and are privately funded by the nonprofit White House Historical Association.
White House portraits have become a longstanding tradition with presidents and first ladies often inviting their predecessors, former staff and friends and family for unveiling ceremonies.
According to a CNN report, White House protocol calls for portraits of the most recent American presidents to be given the most prominent placement, in the entrance of the executive mansion, visible to guests during official events and visitors on tours.
A spokesperson for Obama’s office declined to comment on his portrait being moved, according to the aforementioned CNN report.
The interior decorating move should come as no surprise as Trump has had his hand in a number of small and large-scale project happening at the White House.
In early August, the White House announced that construction on a massive, new $200 million ballroom will begin in September and be ready before Trump‘s term ends in early 2029.
As previously reported by The Horn News, it will be the latest change introduced to what’s known as “The People’s House” since Trump returned to office.
It also will be the first structural change to the Executive Mansion itself since the addition of the Truman balcony in 1948.
Trump has substantially redecorated the Oval Office through the addition of golden flourishes and cherubs, presidential portraits and other items, and installed massive flagpoles on the north and south lawns to fly the American flag.
Workers are currently finishing up a project to replace the lawn in the Rose Garden with stone.