Donald Trump returns bust of Winston Churchill to Oval Office

Wednesday, 22 January 2025 12:26

Donald Trump's hectic schedule while assuming power hasn't stopped him arranging some of the White House furniture, including returning a controversial bust of Winston Churchill to his inner sanctum.

The statue of the British statesman and legendary World War II leader has been in and out of the Oval Office - the formal working place of the US President - since 2008, the Independent reports.

There are actually two identical Churchill busts, both by the British modernist sculptor Jacob Epstein. One has been in the White House collection since Lyndon B Johnson's administration, and the second was given to George W Bush by former UK prime minister Tony Blair when the original was being restored.

The one from Blair sat on display in the Oval Office until Bush departed and was then returned to the British government.

In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama ruffled diplomatic relations with London when he moved the Churchill bust to an outer room in the White House. He had a bust of civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr replace it in the Oval Office.

Obama's actions prompted a backlash from Churchill fans in the UK. The then-London mayor Boris Johnson, a Churchill biographer who went on to become British prime minister, suggested an "ancestral dislike of the British Empire" had motivated Obama, whose father was from Kenya.

Then in 2017, Trump brought the bust back to the Oval Office when he succeeded Obama. Then- British prime minister Theresa May, who was Trump's first foreign visitor to the Oval Office, came armed with the UK version of the bust to present to him.

It remained there during Trump's first term until Churchill was ousted by Joe Biden, who pushed it aside and replaced with busts of civil rights figures Cesar Chavez and Rosa Parks.

But on Tuesday, the bust of the British statesman returned to a table on the right-hand side of the Oval Office's fireplace.

Trump backers in the US media, such as American Spectator magazine, have flatteringly compared him with Churchill.

Former Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly also advised Trump to study Churchill last year to build his support among voters.

Earlier this week, Trump supporter and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told Britain's The Daily Express that the incoming US President would return the statue to the Oval Office.

"Is Donald Trump going to return the Winston Churchill bust to the Oval Office?

"Good Lord, yes. On day one? Of course he is. Don't be ridiculous. And that says it all."

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