Mwhere’s the bust of Winston Churchill? When Joe Biden opened the Oval Office to the press on Wednesday, January 20, for his first day in the White House, the change immediately jumped out… British tabloids.
The Oval Office symbolizes the power and majesty of the US presidential office. By entering it, Joe Biden like all his predecessors recovered the current affairs and imprinted his mark on the decoration: it must reflect his personality, the type of presidency he intends to lead, and inspire him, a little, because the days are going to be busy.
TIME’s new cover: Day one https://t.co/VazxGDJzZf https://t.co/R6jVrzXXZc
Joe Biden’s decor is the Prévert-style inventory of the history of the United States: facing the Resolute desk (the presidential office), he hung the portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a reference to the crisis of the 1930s. He is surrounded by those of George Washington, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. He added that of Benjamin Franklin, to show that he believes in science. Next to it, he placed a moon stone, a tribute to space missions and an echo of the return planned for 2024 on the Earth satellite.
And then there are the busts: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy and Rosa Parks, references to the struggles for civil rights. But what about that of Winston Churchill, Roosevelt’s unwavering ally during the Second World War, the one who first spoke of the special relationship, these very close diplomatic, economic, military and cultural ties between the United Kingdom and the United States?
“The offense against Churchill”
A certain English press like the Sun, which defends tooth and nail the “britannitude”, rebels against this “Affront to Churchill” (“Churchill snub”). The Daily Mail choke and find “Very disturbing” that the bust has been replaced “By the left socialist, César Chávez”, American peasant union leader and civil rights activist. Nigel Farage, the herald of “Brexit” and unfortunate supporter of Donald Trump, believes that this withdrawal is “A slap in the face for the British and any prospect of good relations”.
There are media reports that the bust of Winston Churchill has been removed from the Oval Office. If true, this is… https://t.co/iGgXNVQt9e
This is not the first time that the UK has questioned the tribulations of the bust in the White House. In the midst of the Brexit campaign and on the occasion of Barack Obama’s visit in April 2016, Boris Johnson, then mayor of London, published a column with racist overtones in The Sun. He wrote that the president “Half Kenyan” maybe had removed it because it was feeding “An ancestral aversion to the British Empire, of which Churchill had been a fervent defender”.
Not one, but two busts
But what Mr Johnson obviously did not know is that there are two busts of the “old lion” in Washington. They were both created by sculptor Jacob Epstein. At the end of the Second World War, in August 1945, he was commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee to create a bust of the former British Prime Minister, recall the Washinton Post and CNN. But no one really knows how many were melted down: ten, twelve or sixteen.
One of them was given to President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 6, 1965. But it had to be restored, and in July 2001 Tony Blair loaned the one from the British Ambassador’s residence in Washington to George W. Bush. This bust remained in the Oval Office until the Republican left before being returned to the British authorities.
Barack Obama had placed the bust outside the Oval Office, in the Treaty Room
However, the bust belonging to the White House has not fallen into oblivion. Under the presidency of Barack Obama, it was placed outside the Oval office, in the Treaty Room, a room which is part of the private apartments of the presidential family. In April 2016, during his trip to London, Barack Obama responded to Boris Johnson’s innuendo, without ever naming him. “I like this guy”, did he declare (at 41.32 minutes in the video above) about the bust, adding: “There aren’t many tables where you can put busts. Otherwise, they start to look a bit crowded. “
After entering the White House, Donald Trump brought the bust back to the Oval Office, shortly before his anti-immigration decrees, the “Muslim Ban” and the “Travel Ban”. The Guardian noted that Jacob Epstein embodied everything Trump hated. Born in New York in 1880, he was the son of Jewish refugees from Poland who emigrated to the United States to flee poverty and persecution.
But even in the UK, the aura enjoyed by Winston Churchill is not what it used to be. A statue of the ex-prime minister, near Parliament, was tagged with the inscription “racist” during a demonstration of the Black Lives Matter movement, in June 2020, following the death of George Floyd. Boris Johnson condemned this action, calling it“Absurd and shameful”, adding that it was impossible to try to change the actions and thoughts of those who decades ago ruled the country.
At a time when family ties between Joe Biden and Ireland raise fears in the United Kingdom of a weakening of the special relationship, 10 Downing Street decided not to react to this bust affair. In a statement sent to the press, a spokesperson replied that “It is of course up to the president to decorate the Oval office as he wishes”. The White House also did not comment.
