Colorado artist denies trying to distort Trump in official portrait

A Colorado-based artist has denied purposefully distorting Donald Trump’s image in an official portrait, after suffering criticism from the American president himself. She claimed that the backlash was now hurting her career.

Sarah A Boardman painted Trump’s official portrait for the Colorado state capitol, where it happily hung for six years from 2019.

But in March 2025, Trump called the canvas “truly the worst” and blamed the Colorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis, in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one,” Trump said in the post, comparing his portrait to Boardman’s depiction of his predecessor Barack Obama, which he claimed was a “wonderful.”

Following this online tantrum, the painting was taken down.

“My intentions, integrity, and abilities were, in my opinion, called into question”, Boardman said in her first comments since the incident. “I completed the portrait accurately, without “purposeful distortion,” political bias, or any attempt to caricature the subject, actual or implied.”

The British-born artist argued that she had “received overwhelmingly positive reviews and feedback” for her work prior to Trump’s comments.

“President Trump is entitled to comment freely, as we all are, but the additional allegations that I “purposefully distorted” the portrait, and that I “must have lost my talent as I got older” are now directly and negatively impacting my business of over 41 years which now is in danger of not recovering”, her statement read.

In 2010, Boardman won a nationwide “Call for Artists” by Colorado’s state capital of Denver to paint the official portraits of Barack Obama and his then-unknown successor Donald Trump. Her rendition of former president George W. Bush also hangs in the Colorado state capitol.

In a 2019 interview for The Denver Post, Boardman said it was important that her work look “apolitical” and “neutral.”

Colorado Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Republican, has said that Trump’s portrait should be replaced with one “that depicts his contemporary likeness.” The process of commissioning a replacement has not yet begun.

In the meantime, following Trump’s criticism of Sarah A Boardman, the American president has been gifted a new portrait from none other than Vladimir Putin.

Has a replacement been found?