Colorado’s legislative leaders will remove President Donald Trump’s official portrait hanging on the third floor of the Presidential gallery at the state Capitol after the president complained that it was “distorted” and the “worst.” 

The portrait will be taken down after the building closes on Monday night and before it opens Tuesday, with the assistance of History Colorado staff, according to a Monday afternoon email from Legislative Council staff director Natalie Castle.

“We have asked History Colorado to store the portrait for us until further notice,” Castle wrote to lawmakers in the notice.

It’s not coming back to the Presidential Gallery, according to Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, who asked the Executive Committee of the Legislative Council on Sunday to remove and replace it.

Writing on Truth Social Sunday afternoon, Trump blasted the portrait as unflattering.

“Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,” Trump wrote. “The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst.”

The president continued: “She must have lost her talent as she got older. In any event, I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one, but many people from Colorado have called and written to complain. In fact, they are actually angry about it! I am speaking on their behalf to the Radical Left Governor, Jared Polis, who is extremely weak on Crime, in particular with respect to Tren de Aragua, which practically took over Aurora (Don’t worry, we saved it!), to take it down. Jared should be ashamed of himself!”

The governor has no authority over the Presidential Gallery and wasn’t in office when the portrait was first commissioned in late 2018.

Taxpayers did not pay for the portrait. It was paid for by a crowdfunding campaign initiated by then-Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Cañon City. The campaign raised more than $10,000. The portrait was hung on Colorado Day, Aug. 1, 2019, more than five years ago.

The Executive Committee of the Legislative Council, a six-member group of the top leaders from both parties in the House and Senate, holds the authority over the Presidential Gallery.

The decision to remove the portrait appears to have been made outside the public eye on Sunday. The executive committee did not meet publicly to discuss the matter, and sources said there are no emails about it. None of the committee’s recent meetings, the most recent on March 18, included any discussion of the portrait.

All six legislative leaders signed off on the request to remove the portrait.

Lundeen called it a “coincidence” that they discussed, via phone, the need to replace the portrait on Sunday.

He noted that the portrait of President Grover Cleveland, who served as both the 22nd and 24th president, was done during Cleveland’s second term to better reflect how he appeared then, and that Trump should be accorded the same courtesy with a more current image.

“It makes sense to stay consistent,” Lundeen said. “Who we’re honoring with a portrait should have some say” in what represents them.

Lundeen said that, based on a change in policy after the last Trump portrait, the taxpayers will pay for the next one. The picture of former President Joe Biden was the first to be taxpayer-funded.

Who will do the portrait?

Lundeen said that’s likely to be a decision between the executive committee and the Capital Building Advisory Committee, which has the authority to recognize that an image is consistent with other portraits. The advisory committee is a 12-member body with two lawmakers. The rest of the members include the Secretary of the Senate, the Chief Clerk of the House, former lawmakers, and other interested parties.

Its current chair is former state Sen. Lois Court, D-Denver.

“It doesn’t surprise me that there’s going to be a change made,” Court told Colorado Politics.

As to who pays for it, given that it’s a replacement portrait, Court said that’s a discussion to be had.

“We have discussed that presidential portraits, regardless of who it is, should be a taxpayer-funded effort,” Court said. 

There’s been no discussion of whether a new one would be taxpayer-funded if someone is dissatisfied with the portrait.

“We haven’t experienced this kind of situation before, so we’ll have to look at what comes next,” Court said.