Donald Trump has already returned the bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office in a symbolic ‘mark of respect’ for his ‘idol’, after Joe Biden removed the bronze statue during the last administration.
The 47th President has refreshed his office with decorations including a portrait of George Washington, a rug designed by Nancy Reagan and the infamous Diet Coke button, moving, this time, to the other side of his desk.
He was also quick to bring back a bust of the British wartime leader Winston Churchill, replaced by Joe Biden with busts of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, activist Rosa Parks and socialist union leader Cesar Chavez.
In a feat of logistical choreography, the Oval Office underwent its makeover in just hours, coinciding with Monday’s historic transfer of power.
Sources close to the President had insisted in the lead-up to the historic inauguration that the bust would make its return with Trump, who has said that the Oscar-winning 2017 film The Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman as Churchill, was ‘my favourite film ever’.
The Churchill bust, by English modernist sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein, was a gift from the Wartime Friends of Winston Churchill to President Lyndon B Johnson in 1965.
Trump restored the bust of Winston Churchill to its original position near the fireplace which was removed during Obamas and Biden’s presidency. Trump is pictured in 2017
The controversial Winston Churchill bust (above circled in red) was returned to the Oval Office by Donald Trump after both Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Pictured here in September 2019
US President Donald Trump with executive orders during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025
Nigel Farage said ahead of the inauguration that Trump would definitely return the bust, hailing him as the ‘most pro-British president since Eisenhower’.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of the United States between January 1953 and January 1961 and helped oversee the rebuilding of Europe after the devastation of WW2.
It took pride of place in the Oval Office until 2009 when Barack Obama was rumoured to have replaced it with one of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The bust returned and controversially replaced MLK Jr. when Trump took office, before being cast aside again when Joe Biden won the election in 2020 in favour of Chavez.
Farage was critical of Biden’s decision to remove the bust, saying in 2021 that its relocation was a sign that he would not be a ‘great friend’ to the UK.
Trump this week restored the bust to its original position near the fireplace, a choice that subtly underscores his affinity for strong leadership.
This time, the bust of Martin Luther King Jr. remains.
The bronze was removed by Joe Biden in 2020 and replaced with a bust of Cesar Chavez
Donald Trump has promised to return a bust of Sir Winston Churchill to the Oval Office
But other Biden additions, such as the bust of labor leader Cesar Chavez and a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, have now been removed.
A source close to Trump said in November, after the election, that ‘one of the first things’ Trump would do would be to bring the Churchill statue back as a ‘mark of respect’.
‘Donald idolises Churchill and believes he’s the greatest leader the world has ever seen. He will restore him to a position of honour,’ the source told the Mail on Sunday.
During his last administration, Trump condemned protestors who daubed ‘racist’ on a statue of Churchill in London’s Parliament Square during the Black Lives Matters protests.
The source said: ‘He thought it was shameful people were attacking Churchill’s image when Churchill saved the world from the tyranny of Hitler.’
The bust of Churchill was a gift to President Lyndon B Johnson in 1965. Pictured: The sculpture with George W Bush
A bust of Martin Luther King Jr. which both Biden and Trump displayed in the Oval Office remains. King sits on the other side of the fire place to Churchill
The story of the Churchill bust is long and winding. According to Dan Pfeiffer, a former assistant and senior advisor to Barack Obama, there has been a bust of Britain’s wartime leader in the White House since the 1960s.
When George W Bush came to power, then British PM Tony Blair loaned him a bust that matched the original as the existing White House one was being restored by specialists.
The one lent by Mr Blair was displayed by President Bush until the end of his Presidency – at which point all of the art specifically on loan to his Oval Office was removed by the curator’s office.
That led to the urban myths that President Obama had returned the Churchill bust or refused to display it, Mr Pfeiffer said.
He added that under Mr Obama the original Churchill bust remained on display in the residence.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
