Donald Trump’s official presidential portrait was released ahead of his inauguration next Monday, and people were quick to notice his glower.
Mr Trump’s pose bears a resemblance to the famous image of him taken by authorities in Georgia in August 2023, after he was booked on charges relating to the accusation he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.
Inauguration day includes a formal swearing-in ceremony as well as musical performances, a celebratory parade and a number of formal balls.
Vice-President-elect JD Vance will also take the oath of office, joining Trump on stage to officially begin their new administration.
The president-elect is set to be sworn in on Jan. 20, and several important political figures have already sent their regrets. Both Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Obama have shared they will not be in attendance on the day.
James said: “The same man, the same President, but two very different states of mind here for Trump, from the almost naïve-looking forced smile and bonhomie of 2017 to the very theatrical, baleful look of 2025.
Michelle Obama and Nancy Pelosi announced they will not attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next Monday.
“In 2017, his lighting was warm, soft and blandly flattering. His face was wreathed in a performed and rather forced-looking smile, with a hiked-up mouth displaying the upper teeth only to suggest an amount of social effort, with the hint that he was being asked to ‘smile!’ at that moment.
“Flip to 2025 and this looks like a man who no-one would dare give orders or even suggestions to. The lighting is dramatic, with the light seeming to shine upward onto his face. Lighting a face from underneath is usually done to give a scary effect and Trump’s expression seems to endorse that, with one eye narrowed beneath a frowning brow and the other brow raised to give the impression of a man who sees everything and fears nothing.”
“It is in mood quite similar to his iconic, baleful mug-shot expression where he looked like a man planning to settle scores with anyone who crossed him once his trial was over. This pose is one that will trap the viewer in its steely gaze and act as a warning to anyone wanting to fool or cross the new president. Even his lips are clamped here in a gesture of power, rather than stretched out into a rictus smile.
“‘Beware, I’m back and I’m tougher than before’ might be the projected message,” she said.
First photo of The U.S. President
Dating from 1843, the photograph of President John Quincy Adams is a unique daguerreotype and was produced by artist Philip Haas just four years after Louis Daguerre’s radical invention was revealed to the world.
In March 1843, Adams visited the Washington, D.C., studio of Haas for a portrait sitting, becoming the first U.S. President to have his likeness captured through the new medium of photography. This sitting took place nearly 15 years after Adams had served as the nation’s sixth President (1825–1829). At the time, he was serving in Congress as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.
National Portrait Gallery To Install Photograph of President-elect Donald J. Trump Before Inauguration
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery will install a photograph of President-elect Donald J. Trump from Jan. 13 through Feb. 11, 2025, to coincide with the 60th presidential inauguration Jan. 20. The photograph, taken in 2019 by photographer Pari Dukovic while on assignment for Time magazine, depicts Trump seated at the Resolute Desk, which, with a few exceptions, has been in the Oval Office since 1880. The portrait will be displayed on the museum’s first floor, adjacent to the “Recent Acquisitions” exhibition.
A second photograph of Trump, taken by Matt McClain in 2017 for The Washington Post, remains on view in “America’s Presidents” as part of a full chronology of the office. The Portrait Gallery’s signature exhibition, “America’s Presidents,” is the only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House. The museum’s official commissioned portrait of Trump will go on view following his final term in office. He is the only U.S. President aside from Grover Cleveland to have won a nonconsecutive second term.
The first presidential inauguration was held on April 30, 1789, in what was then the nation’s capital of New York City. On a second floor balcony of Federal Hall, George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States. With one hand on the Bible, Washington recited the words that would be said by every president after him: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
In the nearly 250 years since, many traditions around presidential inaugurations have remained the same—but a lot has changed. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson became the first president to be sworn in in the nation’s new capital, Washington, D.C., the site of nearly all inaugurations since. After Washington and until Franklin D. Roosevelt, inaugurations were always held on March 4, the anniversary of the Constitution first taking effect in 1789. After the passage of the 20th Amendment in 1933, however, Inauguration Day became January 20.
James Buchanan’s inauguration ceremony in 1857 was the first to be photographed. William McKinley’s in 1897 was the first to be filmed and Harry Truman’s in 1949 was the first to be televised. The introduction of cameras brought a wider audience to the ceremonies and to the peaceful transfer of power in action—another sacred American tradition since the days of Washington.
espite a former directive that U.S. flags would be flown at half-staff during President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration day—an official sign of grieving former President Jimmy Carter, who died on Dec. 29, 2024, aged 100—the flags at the Capitol are set to be flying full. This comes after Trump complained about the idea of the flags being flown at half-staff.
In a statement shared via social media on Jan. 14, Speaker Mike Johnson said: “On Jan. 20th, the flags at the Capitol will fly at full-staff to celebrate our country coming together behind the inauguration of our 47th President, Donald Trump. The flags will be lowered back to half-staff the following day to continue honoring President Jimmy Carter.”
President Joe Biden had originally directed that flags were set to be flown at half-staff. In his proclamation about the death of Carter, Biden said that flags should be flown at half-staff “as an expression of public sorrow” for 30 days—a period of time that would have included Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Jan. 20.
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