Julian Raven's Presidential Trump Portrait Rejected By The Smithsonian
The Historic Presidential Trump Portrait from 2015 on display with the Obama Hope Poster by Shepherd Fairey, Politicon 2016
We The People Must Hold Trump Accountable In Our Museum
Today, April 26th, 2021, I learned through Andrew Beaujon’s article in the Washingtonian that the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery would display a photo by Pari Dukovic of President Trump. This photo will act as a placeholder when the gallery opens in May until his official portrait is complete.
Firstly I think the photograph is excellent, and a good selection. In the photo, President Trump looks presidential, in the prime of his presidency. My Trump portrait rejected by the Smithsonian would not the appropriate painting since it was originally only offered for display for the 2017 inauguration as a tribute to Trump's historic campaign and victory.
The question I ask myself is, “Is it appropriate at this time in history to be honoring former President Trump in this manner?” I solidly supported President Trump for years. I voted for him in 2016 and 2020 and then saw the man I had supported lose control and drive his political bulldozer into his backyard. President Trump could not face the harsh reality of a national repudiation and humbly accept a divinely sent humiliation.
Even disagreeing with the election results, the honorable thing to have done was to contest the elections legally and then, when you had exhausted your options, accept defeat. Then hand over power with dignity and honor to President-Elect Biden, as had been done for him by his adversary President Obama. This was going to be the biggest test of his life, and sadly he failed that test. He drove the bulldozer into his own backyard and wrecked so much of what he had accomplished and so many people’s lives.
If President Trump was still convinced that the election was stolen, then he could have gone away quietly, used his resources and found the evidence and then show the world and Joe Biden’s Presidency would have been nullified, creating a constitutional crisis of the likes this nation had never seen. But no, President Trump abused the People’s trust, a sacred trust that I and millions of others placed upon him, and took matters into his own hands. President Trump planned to thwart the election and our governmental systems by pulling the ‘win at all costs’ option, his own mantra, that came back to bite him with divine vengeance.
President Trump swore an oath before man and God to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Still, he chose to cast that oath aside and try to upend the lawful constitutional process of the certification of Joe Biden’s win. Vice President Pence does not receive enough credit for the stand he took in honoring his oath. He saved our constitution in the face of such mammoth Presidential pressure and hundreds of insurrectionists chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” all because he was following the law? What an outrage!
I think the Smithsonian should look at its own standards and realize that the “Gallery shall function as a free public museum for the exhibition and study of portraiture and statuary depicting men and women who have made significant contributions to the history, development, and culture of the people of the United States and of the artists who created such portraiture and statuary.20 U.S. Code § 75b. And then ask the question, can inciting an insurrection based on a lie be defined as a significant contribution to our history and culture?
I believe the right thing to do would be to hang a black cloth over the photo and that no honor be given to Donald Trump until he repents before God and man. The museum should require the former President to make an apology to the American people and the citizens in Washington D.C. for inciting an insurrection that he was impeached for, lest we forget! Also, to issue an apology to all those people who blindly followed him because they trusted him, whose lives now will rot inside the federal prison system. Yes, they broke the law, but they were doing the President’s bidding; they would not have gone if he had not egged them on.
President Trump can be redeemed! I pray for his redemption; it is one of the main themes in my often ridiculed painting!
Julian Raven
