Politics

Obama Will Reportedly Skip His White House Presidential Portrait Ceremony As Long As Trump Is In Office

President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama talk on the East front steps of the US Capitol after inauguration ceremonies on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

(ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

Christian Datoc Senior White House Correspondent
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President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama won’t team up to reveal the 44th President’s official White House portrait, people familiar with the discussion told NBC News.

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 20: Former U.S. President Barack Obama (R) congratulates U.S. President Donald Trump after he took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. In today's inauguration ceremony Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 20: Former U.S. President Barack Obama (R) congratulates U.S. President Donald Trump after he took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. In today’s inauguration ceremony Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

NBC’s sources said that Obama will forgo the ceremony as long as Trump is in office and is willing to potentially wait until 2025 to have his and former First Lady Michelle Obama’s portraits revealed in the East Room. The Obamas began the customary consultation process for the portraits, different from those revealed in 2018 at the National Portrait Gallery, shortly after leaving office in 2017.

This will be the first time since Ronald Reagan’s first term in office that the current president did not host his predecessor — at the time Jimmy Carter — for such an unveiling ceremony. (RELATED: Trump Says He’s Been Taking Hydroxychloroquine For A Week And A Half)

Trump himself has skipped several presidential customs, most notably attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, and has been increasingly critical of Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden’s role in unmasking Gen. Mike Flynn.

The White House declined a response to Daily Caller’s inquiries on the report.

The Obamas’ National Portrait Gallery likenesses were unveiled back in 2018.

Kehinde Wiley, the artist who painted Obama’s portrait, described the unusual decision to place Obama in front of fauna as a way of “charting his path on Earth through those plants.”

“There’s a fight going on between he in the foreground and the plants that are trying to announce themselves underneath his feet,” he explained. “Who gets to be the star of the show? The story or the man who inhabits that story?”

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