Ex-White House photographer Pete Souza had one question on Instagram Tuesday for President Donald Trump, who has reportedly moved former President Barack Obama’s presidential portrait to a less visible spot in the White House: “Petty or racist?”
CNN reported Sunday that the president had ordered his staff to move the portrait to the top of the Grand Staircase. The outlet cited two sources familiar with the matter, and even reviewed a photo showing the painting hanging in its new, far-less-prominent home.
Souza has cheekily shaded Trump before, but appeared earnestly troubled by this news. The former chief official White House photographer, who served during both Obama’s and President Ronald Reagan’s administrations, explained his frustrations in a lengthy post.
“There is a longstanding protocol/tradition where the portraits of former Presidents are hung,” Souza wrote Tuesday on Instagram. “The most recent ones are displayed in the Grand Foyer, then the Cross Hall, then the Grand Staircase, in that order.”
“They are all prominently displayed so visitors during the White House public tours would see the most recent Presidents,” he continued. “(Other portraits like Lincoln and Washington are displayed prominently in the State Dining Room and East Room).”
Souza went on to excoriate Trump without ever using his name, and slammed “the current occupant of the Oval Office” for moving Obama’s portrait “to that hidden area” where “it cannot be seen publicly on White House tours and cannot be seen by White House staff.”
“Why was this done?” Souza asked point-blank Tuesday at the tail end of his post. “Was it because President Obama lives rent free in the current occupant’s head? I’d say that’s pretty petty. Or could there be another reason?”
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He accompanied Tuesday’s post with a photo of his own, which caught Obama and then-first lady Michelle Obama descending the Grand Staircase in 2009 — with the portraits of former Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry Truman appropriately adorning its walls.
