Feud between Trump and Obama breaks a 42-year-old White House tradition

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• President Donald Trump does not want to host former president Barack Obama’s presidential portrait at the White House, and neither Obama intends to attend such ceremony so long as Trump is in office — according to an NBC News report on Tuesday.
• The longstanding hostility between the two presidents would break the 1978 ceremonial tradition between incumbent presidents and their predecessors.
• The Obamas hosted the Bush’s presidential portrait unveiling at the White House in 2012; Obama said then that he and Bush may have political differences, “but the presidency transcends those differences.”

According to an NBC News report on Tuesday, President Donald Trump is not planning to host an unveiling ceremony at the White House for Barack Obama’s presidential portrait — and the former president is neither interested in such ceremony so long as Trump is in office.

The longstanding hostility between them would break a 42-year-old ceremonial tradition between incumbent presidents and their predecessors. The custom dates back to 1978.

When Obama was still president, Trump came to political prominence by incessantly bombarding a baseless conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the US despite his birth certificate justifies that he was born in Hawaii.

For the past weeks, Trump has blamed the Obama administration for the high death tolls in the US due to COVID-19. He even said, without evidence, that Obama was behind the “biggest political crime in American history.”

Obama has made some criticisms against the Trump administration over COVID-19 handling in the past month, but hasn’t mentioned Trump by name.

It is not confirmed when Obama’s presidential portrait would be unveiled, according to NBC News. But if Trump wins reelection in November, the ceremony could be postponed until 2025.

The portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama could also be affected if the ceremony won’t push through.

Former First Lady and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, shared that seeing her portrait being hanged was a “daunting” experience.

“It is something that really does, more than any other act, sort of put your place in history in this building for all the ages and all the people who come through here to see and reflect upon,” Clinton said, according to NBC.

In 2004, President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush hosted the Clintons at the White House as the first Lady even hosted the Clintons for lunch.

The Obamas have their portraits hung up at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. Their Smithsonian portraits are different from the portraits displayed at the White House. The former president and First Lady already chose artists to do their White House portraits and finalized the pieces in early 2017. The process already ended there as reported by NBC.

Both the Obamas’ and the White House’s spokespeople did not respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

The Obamas hosted the Bush’s family and friends at the White House in 2012 for their portrait unveilings.

“We may have our differences politically,” Obama said then, “but the presidency transcends those differences.”

Source: PEOPLE.com