One of the first “statements” Barack Obama made as president in 2009 was to quietly send a bust of Winston Churchill that graced the Oval Office back to the British — and then (shades of eight years of deception to come) lie about having done so. (Later, the administration was forced to admit the story was true.) In any case, the banishment of the sculpture, which had initially been presented to President George W. Bush in 2001, was seen as a slap in the face to one America’s great allies.
Now, topping President-elect Donald Trump’s to-do list once elected is to undo that slight. Trump has already taken steps to mend fences symbolically by restoring the Churchill bust to its place of honor in the White House.
Via The Sun:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Donald Trump has asked Britain to send … Churchill’s bust back to the White House so he can return it to the Oval Office, The Sun can reveal.
The request was put to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson by the President Elect’s senior advisers during talks in New York three days ago.
Last night, Downing Street confirmed that Theresa May has agreed to a loan of the famous sculpture again.
[…]
A bitter row over the bust’s location has raged for seven years since outgoing President Barack Obama replaced the wartime leader’s image with one of Martin Luther King in 2009.
Johnson had previously blasted Obama for urging Brits to vote “remain” during the Brexit process, even going so far to cite his “part-Kenyan” roots when discussing the Churchill bust.
Recalling that a bust of Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill was removed from the Oval Office after Obama moved in, Johnson wondered why.
“Some said it was a snub to Britain,” he wrote. “Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British Empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.”
When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in 2012 that he would bring the bust back to the White House if elected, aides to Obama reported being “furious.”
Regardless, the snub is now being reversed with Trump seemingly intent in restoring the tribute to Churchill to its place of honor in the presidential mansion. Once again, Trump is making America great again in the wake of Obama’s ridiculous failed presidency.
Cross-posted at the Mental Recession
