An oval office has again introduced new busts: Cesar Chavez, leader of civil rights in Latino, Rev. Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy, Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt.
In another era, the same decision screamed. American conservatives and even some British politicians have declared it a major trigger.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said it was because President Barack Obama “probably grew up when he heard that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.”
Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, claims that the decision on decoration ‘predicted everything that would come in the next six years’.
Boris Johnson, then mayor of London and now prime minister, went the furthest. He blamed the exchange for the ‘partial Kenyan president’s dislike of the British Empire’.
The attacks were blatantly racist and also misleading. Obama officials were furious.
There are actually two identical Churchill busts, both by the British modernist sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein. One has been in the White House collection since the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson. Another was lent by Prime Minister Tony Blair to the George W. Bush White House when the other one was restored.
The one from Blair exhibited in the Oval Office until Bush left. It was returned to the British government.
Under Obama, the White House version was not displayed in the Oval Office; instead, Obama kept it outside the Convention Room in the dormitory, where he walked past when he wanted to watch basketball on weekends and evenings. He chose to place it there so that he would see it during his personal time. He had a bust of King in the office.
He discussed the situation during his last year in office.
‘I love the man,’ he said during a visit to London, adding later: ‘There are just so many tables where you can put busts. Otherwise it looks a bit messy. ‘
When Trump arrives, he returns Churchill to the Oval Office, much to the delight of the British. The then Prime Minister Theresa May, who was Trump’s first foreign visitor to the Oval Office, came armed with the British version of the bust to present Trump. Officials said the Trump team requested it.
“We were very glad you accepted it again,” May told him.
Now the bust is gone again. But Johnson, who is now prime minister and hopes to forge strong ties with the new government, does not appear to have the same reaction.
“The Oval Office is the president’s private office, and it’s the president to decorate it the way he wants,” a Downing Street spokesman said Thursday. “We have no doubt about the importance that President Biden places on the UK-US relationship, and the Prime Minister looks forward to having the close relationship with him.”