Barack Obama

White House Portrait Ceremony May Be Latest Casualty of Political Divide

The traditional White House portrait unveiling may be skipped for the first time in decades amid bad blood between Trump and Obama

White House Portrait unveil
Photo by Leigh Vogel/WireImage

It's been a White House tradition for decades: A first-term president hosts a ceremony in the East Room for the unveiling of the official portrait of his immediate predecessor that will hang in the halls of the White House for posterity, reports NBC News.

Republican presidents have done it for Democratic presidents, and vice versa — even when one of them ascended to the White House by defeating or sharply criticizing the other.

"We may have our differences politically," President Barack Obama said when he hosted former President George W. Bush for his portrait unveiling in 2012, "but the presidency transcends those differences."

Yet this modern ritual won't be taking place between Obama and President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. And if Trump wins a second term in November, it could be 2025 before Obama returns to the White House to see his portrait displayed among every U.S. president from George Washington to Bush.

Read the full story at NBC News.com.

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