Trump drinks with Lincoln depicted in new painting
IT COULD be any Republican president’s fantasy: hanging out at a bar wit h fellow conser vative American leaders of years, decades, and even centuries past.
For President Donald Trump, that fictional “happy hour” exists, in the form of a painting hanging at the White House that caused a huge uproar on social media when it was revealed over the weekend.
The president’s critics say the scene is as real as some of the claims Trump made during his interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday where a glimpse of the painting could be seen in the background.
Trump’s likeness has been r ut h l e s s l y d i s f i g u r e d b y “high” and “low” artists alike, who have made no secret of t heir disli ke of t he Republican president.
But i n “T he Republ ic a n Club”, a pa i nt i ng by A ndy Thomas, an uncharacteristically brawny Trump sports an a f fable, i f sl ig ht ly pi nched smile as he is joined by t he l i kes of Abra ha m L i ncol n, Richard Ni xon, Ronald Reaga n, Teddy Roosevelt a nd George W Bush.
The whole group is chatting around a table and seems to be having a jolly good time while sharing drinks, apart perhaps for Calvin Coolidge, who hovers in the background a short distance away.
Instead of sitting, Roosevelt has a foot propped up on a chair as he leans in intently, hand on one knee. Gerald Ford is leaning against a pillar. Reagan and Nixon are trading glances, and George HW Bush looks on. Eisenhower leans in next to Trump.
The fantasy creation was mercilessly mocked on social media.
One Twitter user wrote: “Neither Lincoln nor Teddy would be caught dead at this table.”
Thomas, who specialises in figurative paintings of cowboys, also made a Democratic presidents’ version of the image.
In both the Republican and Democratic versions, there’s a vague rendering of a woman in the background, a nod to a potential first female American president.