A photograph of former President Donald Trump will greet visitors to the National Portrait Gallery’s “America’s Presidents” exhibit when the museum reopens May 14. It’s not an official portrait, as Jane Recker wrote for Washingtonian last month. It’s a photograph by Pari Dukovic taken for Time on June 17, 2019, the day before Trump announced his doomed reelection bid. Please note that the service flags in the background do not include a Space Force flag—it didn’t become an official branch of the military until the end of that year.
The portrait is also, notably, not the lysergic portrait by artist Julian Raven, who sued the Portrait Gallery when it declined his offer to exhibit it there. Raven would be unlikely to make Trump’s short list of official portraitists at this point: He called for Trump to resign after the January 6 Capitol riot.
Info about the Portrait Gallery’s reopening is here.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
