Next week, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama will visit the White House to attend the long-delayed exhibition of their official portraits, which will be hosted by President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
Former President Donald Trump would have welcomed the Obamas to the White House for the ceremony in the spring of 2020 if he had adhered to protocol.
Trump didn’t act in this way.
As a result, a first-term president has not sent an invitation to his predecessor for the occasion, which will take place on Wednesday, in more than ten years.
These portraits are distinct from the modernist works of the Obamas that were shown in 2019 at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian.
The custom of the picture unveiling event dates back many years.
Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman, together with relatives and friends, were invited to the White House for East Room ceremonies by first lady Lady Bird Johnson.
In February 1966, the Roosevelt ceremony took held.
After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1971, former first lady Jackie Kennedy made her one and only journey back to the White House to have her late husband’s picture installed.
She accepted an invitation from President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon to attend a ceremony and go for a private screening.
The first president to host an event was Jimmy Carter, who welcomed President Gerald Ford and former first lady Betty Ford to the White House in 1978 for an East Room ceremony.
Ford had lost to him in the 1976 presidential election.
There was no celebration for Carter under the administration of President Ronald Reagan, although Gerald Rafshoon, Carter’s director of White House communications, said NBC it was probably Carter’s decision, not a snub.
Rafshoon told the network, “It would definitely be out of his character to desire a major celebration in Washington so quickly.”
I suppose he decided against having it.
In November 1989, Reagan’s vice president, George H.W. Bush, welcomed the Reagans back to the White House.
In July 1995, Bush and first wife Barbara Bush attended a celebration honouring President Bill Clinton, who had beaten Bush in the 1992 election.
President George W. Bush invited the Clintons to visit in June 2004 following the 2000 election, which resulted in the White House returning to Republican control.
In 2012, George W. was invited to the concluding ceremony of the modern era. likewise Laura Bush.
Obama noted at the time that while “we may have our views ideologically, the president transcends those divisions.”
Trump, however, has never shown any interest in joining the group of bipartisan former presidents, despite the fact that Carter, Clinton, Bush 41, and Obama seem to get along well with the current living officers.
Trump declined to join Obama, Clinton, and George W. Bush for Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
Amidst the COVID-19 epidemic, Carter, who was 96 at the time, was unable to attend owing to health reasons.
In April 2021, Biden paid Carter and his wife Rosalynn a visit at their Plains, Georgia, home.
Trump also rejected the notion of getting the COVID-19 vaccination at the same time as the former presidents.
An idea was floated to have the president “invite the former presidents to the White House – or to some other site” so that they could all receive the vaccine together in a show of unity,” according to aide Brian Morgenstern, who was the White House deputy press secretary and deputy communications director at the time in a new book.
Morgenstern said that he and another employee were assigned the duty of bringing up the notion to Trump in a private meeting.
According to Morgenstern, “He formed a look that expressed, may we say, a healthy scepticism.”
“I’ll get the shot,” he said, “and if they want me to, I’ll get the shot.”
However, he declared: “Nah, I’m a different sort of a man, you know?” in reference to a gathering with the past presidents.