DONALD Trump will return a bronze bust of Winston Churchill to the White House.
The sculpture of the British wartime leader was removed by President Joe Biden.
AFPDonald Trump will return a bronze bust of Winston Churchill to the White House after it was removed by Biden[/caption]
PA:Press AssociationThis is the second time Trump has reinstated the bust after Obama also removed it in 2009[/caption]
AFPBiden had replaced the statue of the wartime PM with one of US union leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez[/caption]
Biden, who will meet Trump on Wednesday to discuss the handover, had replaced the statue of the former PM with one of US union leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.
A source close to the incoming President said swapping the busts would be “one of the first things he will do”.
They told the Mail on Sunday: “Donald idolises Churchill and believes he’s the greatest leader the world has ever seen. He will restore him to a position of honour.”
Trump has repeatedly praised the wartime figure, even calling him his “hero” and describing the Oscar-winning film The Darkest Hour, in which Gary Oldman plays Churchill, as his “favourite film ever.”
Churchill’s bust, sculpted by English artist Sir Jacob Epstein, was originally given to President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 to commemorate the death of the British PM that year.
The bust held a prime position in the Oval Office until 2009 when Barack Obama removed it to make room for a statue of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Trump reinstated the bust when he came to power after the 2016 election.
During his first term in office, Trump visited Churchill’s birthplace – Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire – and befriended the home’s owner the Duke of Marlborough.
Last night, former Tory MP Rory Stewart said: “I’m delighted that the bust of Winston Churchill is going back into the Oval office.
“Whatever we all think of Donald Trump and I am – to put it mildly – no fan it’s very important for Britain that we retain a positive relationship with the President of the United States.”
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