Administration

Trump puts Churchill bust back in the Oval Office

President Trump has reinstalled a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the Oval Office. 

The bust was removed from the office in 2009 under former President Barack Obama, a move that sparked conservative ire early in his administration.

{mosads}The bust was spotted by reporters in the Oval Office while Trump signed a series of executive orders, some of his first official acts as president. 

Obama moved the bust out of the office up to the White House residence.

The Obama White House said the bust was removed to make room for one of former President Abraham Lincoln and another of Martin Luther King Jr.

Some Republicans and conservatives interpreted Obama’s move as a snub to the United Kingdom, one of the U.S.’s closest allies. 

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2011 called Obama’s decision “a great insult to the British.”

“His perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather. He probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.”

Obama was born and raised in the U.S. and did not visit the birth country of his father until his early 20s. 

He denied the move was a snub last year during a visit to England. 

“I love Winston Churchill. I love the guy,” Obama said at a news conference with then-British Prime Minister David Cameron. 

Updated at 8:11 p.m.