Trump makes subtle dig at Obama with White House move

Donald Trump has cranked up his feud with Barack Obama by removing a portrait of the former president from public view in the White House. Knewz.com can reveal the business mogul has reportedly switched pictures of his predecessor from the Grand Staircase, where more than a million visitors pass each year, to a private area for staff only.

The portrait — which depicts Obama against an all-white background— joins similar paintings of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush in the reshuffle. According to sources, the portraits now reside in a hallway that’s restricted to members of the first family, Secret Service and a few White House staffers. During his first term in office, Trump also moved a portrait of Bill Clinton. A portrait of former President Joe Biden has not yet been completed. The switching of Obama’s portrait by Trump comes as tensions between the pair have escalated in recent months.

Trump recently accused Obama and members of his administration of committing treason during the 2016 election, prompting a rare statement from his predecessor, whose office called the claims “outrageous,” “bizarre” and “a weak attempt at distraction” from the Jeffrey Epstein client list scandal. The current president’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, subsequently ordered prosecutors to begin a grand jury probe into allegations that top Obama administration officials manufactured intelligence about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. During his campaign run in North Carolina in November, Trump responded to Obama commenting about him during a rally in Detroit a few days earlier. “I think he’s a real jerk because I’ve watched him campaign over the last couple of days. … What a divider he is. He divides this country. He couldn’t care less, him and his little group of people,” Trump said.

Obama also laid into Trump for selling watches and sneakers during his campaign, rhetorically asking, “Who is hawking merch when they’re running for president?” Said Obama, “He’s trying to sell you golden sneakers. He’s trying to sell you a $100,000 watch — says it’s made in Switzerland, but nobody really knows.” He continued to mock more of Trump’s merch, pointing out that, ironically, most of it was likely not made in America. “My favorite is the Trump Bible. He’s Mr. Tough Guy in China, except when he can make a few bucks,” Obama said.

Mocking Trump’s merch

There have also been long-simmering tensions between Trump and the Bush family. The elder Bush, who died in 2018, called Trump a “blowhard” in a biography and voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. George W. Bush, whom Trump has attacked as a “failed and uninspiring” president, and former first lady Laura Bush attended the president’s 2025 inauguration but did not attend the post-ceremony luncheon.