President Donald Trump’s official portrait in the Colorado Capitol will be taken down Monday night, a day after the president took to social media to complain about the “distorted” portrayal. The General Assembly’s executive committee — composed of legislative leadership from both parties — signed a joint directive to legislative staff Monday afternoon to remove the portrait. The image will be taken down after the Capitol closes Monday night, legislative staff said in an email. It will then be stored “in a secure and appropriate location… until further notice,” according to the directive. In a statement, House Democratic spokesman Jarrett Freedman said Republican leadership had asked that the portrait be removed. “If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol,” he wrote, “then that’s up to them.” The portrait, commissioned during Trump’s first term, was paid for with a Republican-led fundraising effort and approved by Colorado Republicans before it was put on display in 2019. The portrayal sparked Trump’s ire Sunday night. “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 in his post on Truth Social. Former state Senate President Kevin Grantham, a Republican, raised nearly $11,000 in an online fundraiser for the portrait in the summer of 2018 after he learned no donations had been received to fund the painting more than a year into Trump’s first term. The unveiling of the portrait on Aug. 1, 2019 — at an event hosted by the Colorado Senate Republicans and artist Sarah Boardman of Colorado Springs — was described as nonpartisan by organizers. “I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one,” Trump wrote, asking that Gov. Jared Polis “take it down.” “Gov. Polis was surprised to learn the president of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado State Capitol and its artwork,” the governor’s press secretary Shelby Wieman said in an emailed statement to The Post on Monday morning. “We appreciate the president and everyone’s interest in our Capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience.” Wieman noted that the Capitol, which was completed in 1901, features Rose Onyx and White Yule Marble mined in Colorado and includes portraits of both former presidents and former governors. Trump’s social media post complained about Boardman, who also painted former President Barack Obama’s portrait in the Capitol’s Gallery of Presidents. “The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst,” Trump wrote. “She must have lost her talent as she got older.” Boardman previously told The Denver Post it was important to her that both Trump and Obama looked apolitical in their portraits because the gallery is meant to tell the story of the U.S. and not one specific president. Related Articles National Politics | Trump administration cancels at least 68 grants focused on LGBTQ health questions National Politics | Postmaster General Louis DeJoy resigns after 5 years in the position National Politics | Trump will nominate acting CDC director Susan Monarez for the position, White House official says National Politics | Lehigh University grad Alina Habba named by Trump to be New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor National Politics | Trump officials texted war plans to a group chat in a secure app that included a journalist The other 43 presidential portraits in the Colorado gallery were painted by Lawrence Williams. He died before he could continue the collection with Obama’s portrait. In 2018, after Colorado Citizens for Culture’s initial effort had failed to raise any money for a Trump portrait, an aide to then-House Speaker Crisanta Duran, a Democrat, helped a liberal political group sneak a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin into the Capitol, where it was displayed on an easel beneath the spot reserved for Trump. Grantham launched his own fundraising campaign days later. ...read more read less