# Trump's Republican Presidents Painting Trump's Republican Presidents Painting is Andy Thomas's 2018 artwork 'The Republican Club,' which shows a slimmed-down Donald Trump sharing drinks with Lincoln, Nixon, Reagan and other GOP presidents. After a camera panned past it during a 60 Minutes interview that October, Twitter users spotted the kitschy scene and turned it into a Photoshop playground. ## Origin Andy Thomas painted 'The Republican Club' as part of a series that already included a 2008 canvas of Republican presidents playing poker and a later companion image of Democratic presidents around a pool table[2]. Thomas told The Daily Beast that Trump was difficult to paint because of his skin tone and smile, but he made the president the focal point of the group anyway, and Trump personally called to thank him for the work[2]. The painting entered the public eye on October 14th, 2018, when CBS aired Lesley Stahl's 60 Minutes interview with Trump about the Russia investigation and his first-term record[1]. A background shot in the broadcast caught the framed print on a White House wall, and journalist Josh Billinson tweeted a screenshot the same night with the caption 'oh my god, it's hanging in the white house,' which pulled in roughly 8,800 retweets and 25,000 likes[1][3]. - **Platform:** CBS 60 Minutes (source) / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Andy Thomas (painting); Josh Billinson (viral tweet) - **Date:** 2018 ## Overview The source image is 'The Republican Club,' a 2018 oil painting by Missouri artist Andy Thomas that places Donald Trump in a smoky lounge beside Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and both Bushes[1]. Trump is painted thinner than life and seated at the center of the group, laughing with Eisenhower and Nixon while Lincoln looks on from across the table[1]. Representative Darrell Issa gave Trump a print of the piece, and it ended up hanging in a hallway outside the Oval Office[2]. The meme version is almost entirely Photoshop based. Edits swap in figures like Vladimir Putin to needle Trump over the Russia investigation, insert random internet characters into the empty chair, or tweak Trump's proportions to undo the artist's flattery[3]. Part of the joke is the painting's own tone, critics compared the composition to the 'dogs playing poker' prints sold in tourist shops, so any addition reads as another layer of kitsch on top of an already kitschy scene[2]. ## How to Use The template is the Thomas composition itself. Editors typically keep the Trump figure and the lounge setting intact and then drop a new face into one of the chairs or into the empty seat beside Trump, with Putin, Plaid Shirt Guy and other 2018 characters being common picks[3]. Captions usually lean on the awkwardness of the original painting rather than adding new text. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Trump's Republican Presidents Painting? It is Andy Thomas's 2018 painting 'The Republican Club,' which depicts Trump socializing with past Republican presidents including Lincoln, Nixon and Reagan, and which spawned a wave of Photoshop edits after being spotted hanging in the White House[1][2]. ### Where did Trump's Republican Presidents Painting come from? A print of the Thomas painting was gifted to Trump by Rep. Darrell Issa and hung at the White House, where a 60 Minutes camera caught it in the background during an October 14th, 2018 interview[2]. ### What does Trump's Republican Presidents Painting mean? Online, the painting became shorthand for Trump-era kitsch; editors used it to joke about his self-image and swapped in figures like Vladimir Putin to riff on the Russia investigation storyline that framed the 60 Minutes interview[1][3]. ### How do you use Trump's Republican Presidents Painting? Users typically Photoshop a new figure into the lounge scene, such as Putin or Plaid Shirt Guy, or alter Trump's appearance so the painting no longer flatters him[3][1]. ### Is Trump's Republican Presidents Painting still popular? The Photoshop wave was concentrated in mid-October 2018 around The Daily Dot's roundup, but the painting is still referenced whenever Trump's White House decor comes up in the press[3][2]. ## References 1. [https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hangs-tacky-fantasy-painting-of-himself-with-gop-presidents-in-white-house]() 2. [https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/trump-painting-memes/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trumps-republican-presidents-painting]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/trumps-republican-presidents-painting Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library