Hours after officially becoming the 45th president of the United States Friday, President Donald Trump, who is known to appreciate his ancestral ties to Scotland, kept his campaign promise of returning the bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office.
The sculpture originally was displayed in the Oval Office, a gift from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to former President George W Bush, the Telegraph reportedFriday. But the piece created by British sculptor Jacob Epstein was removed by Barack Obama in 2009, who replaced it with a bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
After Obama’s action triggered outcries from government officials in both the U.S. and the Britain, Obama sheepishly said he kept a personal statue of Churchill in his private office in the domestic quarters of the White House. Obama said he preferred it there so he could see it every day. The mayor of London at the time, Boris Johnson, called the move a “snub to Britain,” and suggested the artwork be returned to British Embassy. Johnson said Obama’s actions were inspired by his “ancestral dislike of the British Empire.”
