Biden’s government on Friday defended the decision to remove a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from the Oval Office – to create a clear video designed to remind people “what the special relationship is really about.”
“We saw a discussion about the Churchill Bust, so we just wanted to remind everyone what the special relationship is really about,” said a tweet from the US Embassy in the United Kingdom.
BID REMOVING CHURCHILL BUST FROM OVAL OFFICE AS PART OF DESIGN
The video contrasts photos of the busy people, described as ‘just a bust of Winston Churchill’, with photos of former presidents meeting with former prime ministers – and the highlights of the USUK relationship.
“The biggest investors in each other’s countries. This is the special relationship,” reads the video. “The special relationship is about people, values and trust.”
President Biden exhibited the bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the Oval Office. The Washington Post, as part of a tour of the famous redesign of the famous room, reported that Biden ‘does not display the bust’. However, other busts, including Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr., are on display.
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, lent President George W. Bush a bust of the British leader during the war in 2001. Former President Barack Obama caused controversy by removing it when he took office in 2009, and it becomes considered by critics to be part of the American and British alliance – although her White House noted that there was another Churchill bust elsewhere in the building.
The controversy stifled for years, with then-London Mayor Boris Johnson remarking in 2016 that ‘some said it was a bit for Britain.’
Former President Donald Trump restored a bust of Churchill in the Oval Office when he became president, and posted with then-Prime Minister Theresa May during their first meeting in Washington in 2017.
“These are the original people in many, many ways,” he told the press at the time. “It’s a great honor to have Winston Churchill back.”
“We are very satisfied,” May replied.
The British government, which saw a pro-Brexit leader in Washington when Trump was president, will look at how Biden handles relations between the two provinces. The UK is hoping for a robust free trade agreement with the US now that it has left the European Union and wants to strengthen its economic independence.
Biden’s decision to remove the bust has drawn criticism from conservative figures on both sides of the Atlantic. The British leader of the Reform Party and Trump ally Nigel Farage described it as a “slap in the face to the British and any prospect of good relations.”
Nile Gardiner, a foreign policy analyst and former assistant to Margaret Thatcher, was critical of the U.S. Embassy’s video.
“The White House of Biden doubles the removal of the Churchill bust from the Oval Office and says it is ‘just a bust of Winston Churchill,'” he said. “Sir Winston Churchill has saved the free world. He is a great hero on both sides of the Atlantic. Show some respect.”
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The Biden government to reduce the controversy, however, was divided by the British government. Asked about the bust, a Downing Street 10 spokesman told The Daily Mail: “The oval office is the president’s private office and it’s the president’s job to decorate it the way he wants.”
The spokesman added: “We do not doubt the importance that President Biden places on the relationship between the US and the UK.”