Bust-ups over Winston in the White House
WHEN George W. Bush was US President, he joked that Churchill was watching his every move – in the form of a bust.
However, when Barack Obama replaced Bush in the White House in 2009, he removed the bust, and replaced it with one of Abraham Lincoln.
The move was ‘a snub to Britain’, Boris Johnson claimed.
When challenged about Churchill, Obama felt obliged to say, not very convincingly: ‘I love the guy.’ But by 2012, when he ran for re-election,
the New York Times reported that ‘the question of whether Barack Obama or Mitt
Romney [his Republican rival] will occupy the White House has been overshadowed… by the question of whether Winston Churchill will do so’.
Romney promised to restore the bust if he became president. Obama was re-elected.
It was another four years before Churchill would watch every move of another US president – when Donald Trump reinstated the bust.
The greatest Englishman’s legacy continued to hold huge symbolism. Trump’s successor Joe Biden pointedly replaced the bust of Churchill with one of Mexican-American labour rights leader Cesar Chavez.
© Geoffrey Wheatcroft, 2021
Abridged extract from Churchill’s Shadow, by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, published by Bodley Head on August 19 at £25. To pre-order a copy for £22.25, including free UK delivery, go to mailshop.co.uk/ books or call 020 3308 9193 before August 22.