Colorado Capitol replaces 'distorted' Trump portrait following months-long backlash

Fox News

02-07-2025

After facing several months of backlash, the Colorado state Capitol has replaced a controversial portrait of President Donald Trump, which he claimed was "purposely distorted" by the artist.
A new presidential portrait, recently donated by the White House, was installed last week at the Denver Capitol, the Colorado Capitol Building Advisory Committee told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. It replaces Colorado artist Sarah Boardman's painting, which had hung since 2019.
Despite the previous portrait's six-year run on display, Trump took to social media last spring to criticize the artwork, saying Boardman "must have lost her talent as she got older" and had "purposely distorted" his image. The Colorado Springs artist denied the claims.
While Boardman's painting depicted a much younger Trump, the latest display by Arizona artist Vanessa Horabuena mirrors Trump's intense official presidential photo.
"Thank you to the Highly Talented Artist, Vanessa Horabuena, and the incredible people of Colorado," Trump said Tuesday on Truth Social.
Horabuena is a "Christian worship artist" who has done several other depictions of Trump as well as Abraham Lincoln, Mount Rushmore and Jesus Christ, according to her website. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Boardman told Fox News Digital she had no comment on the new painting.
The Horabuena portrait was installed as a temporary display following a Thursday decision by the advisory committee, which oversees art displays at the Capitol.
"The Capitol Building Advisory Committee has agreed at the committee's meeting on June 26, 2025, to temporarily display this donated portrait and will consider the disposition of the full presidential portrait collection at a future meeting," the committee told Fox News Digital. "The new portrait is installed in the third floor gallery of the Colorado Capitol."
Lois Court, a former state lawmaker who chairs the committee, told the Associated Press that installing the donated artwork was the right move.
"There was a blank on the wall," Court said. "It seemed inappropriate. We knew that the White House had sent us this replacement and it simply made sense to put it up."
Boardman's portrait was removed from the Capitol's presidential gallery wall in April, according to the committee, after Colorado Democrats – who control the legislature – agreed to take it down at the request of local Republican leaders.
"Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before," Trump said in March on Truth Social. "The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one of me is truly the worst. She must have lost her talent as she got older."