Politics

Trump Will Get Presidential Portrait, Library Regardless Of 2024 Plans

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President Donald Trump will receive two presidential paintings and a library regardless of whether he runs for president in 2024, The Hill reported Monday.

Two presidential portrait paintings are traditionally commissioned after presidents end their office terms, The Hill reported. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s portrait process hasn’t begun yet, a spokeswoman for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery told the Daily Caller News Foundation, but will start soon.

“I can tell you at this time we have not started this process with President Trump and Mrs. Trump. We were, you know, waiting for the people to speak in terms of the election,” the spokeswoman said.

“But now we will soon be moving forward with that process,” the spokeswoman said.

One set of portraits will go to the National Portrait Gallery’s and the other will go to the White House’s, the spokeswoman told the DCNF. The museum’s curators create a list of artists to paint the president and first lady’s paintings.

After the president and first lady give their input on artists they prefer to paint the portraits, the museum will start to “raise private funds to actually commission the artworks,” the spokeswoman told the DCNF.

Trump will get portrait, library no matter his future plans https://t.co/MRYqT1Wi0E pic.twitter.com/AxgyCHLU8v

— The Hill (@thehill) November 16, 2020

The gallery waited for the 2020 election results before deciding when to start the process, the spokeswoman told the DCNF. If Trump had been reelected, the gallery would have waited to begin the process, the spokeswoman said.

The gallery will now begin the process since they “can’t predict the outcome of future elections” and “we now know he is not serving a second term, at least not immediately,” the spokeswoman told the DCNF. The spokeswoman acknowledged “that there are rumors that he might run for non-consecutive term.”

“If he ran again in the future and he didn’t win, we wouldn’t want to wait that long to have a portrait of him commissioned,” The spokeswoman said.

The Associated Press, Fox News and numerous other outlets have projected Former Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris won the 2020 presidential election. The Trump campaign has filed numerous lawsuits to contest the election’s outcome, and the president has not conceded the race.

Usually a foundation oversees funds for the creation and keeping up the presidential library, The Hill reported. Trump has not started the foundation and it’s unclear if he has discussed it.