President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will receive former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House next week to unveil their official portraits.
Had he followed tradition, ex-President Donald Trump would have invited the Obamas to the White House ceremony in spring 2020.
Trump didn’t do anything like that.
That means it’s been more than a decade since a first-term president invited his predecessor to the event, which takes place next Wednesday.
These portraits differ from the Obamas’ modernist pieces unveiled at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in 2019.
The tradition of the portrait unveiling ceremony goes back decades.
It originated as a First Ladies Event – with First Lady Lady Bird Johnson inviting Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman to East Room ceremonies along with family and friends at the White House.
The last White House portrait ceremony was in May 2012 when President Barack Obama (left) and First Lady Michelle Obama (right) invited President George W. Bush (center left) and Laura Bush (center right) to the White House
President Joe Biden (left) holds the portrait unveiling ceremony more than two years after former President Donald Trump (right) was supposed to invite the Obamas to the White House, which he declined
The Roosevelt ceremony took place in February 1966.
Former first lady Jackie Kennedy made her only return trip to the White House after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1971 to see her late husband’s portrait hung. President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon invited her to a ceremony — and she agreed to attend a private viewing.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter became the first President to host, bringing President Gerald Ford and former First Lady Betty Ford to the White House for an East Room ceremony.
He had defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential race.
There was no ceremony for Carter during President Ronald Reagan’s administration — however, Carter’s White House communications director, Gerald Rafshoon, told NBC that it was likely Carter’s choice, not a snub.
“It probably wouldn’t be in his character to want a big ceremony in Washington so soon,” Rafshoon told the broadcaster. “I would imagine he chose not to have it.”
President George HW Bush, serving as Reagan’s vice president, brought the Reagan back to the White House in November 1989.
First Ladies Barbara Bush (left) and Nancy Reagan (center left) giggle as they watch the unveiling of President Ronald Reagan’s (center right) portrait during the administration of President George HW Bush (right).
President Bill Clinton (left) and Hillary Clinton (center left) brought First Lady Barbara Bush (center right) and President George HW Bush (right) to Whtie House for a portrait unveiling ceremony in July 1995
President George W. Bush (right) and First Lady Laura Bush (center right) invited President Bill Clinton (left) and Hillary Clinton (center left) to the White House for the June 2004 portrait unveiling
President Bill Clinton, who defeated Bush in the 1992 election, held a ceremony for his predecessor in July 1995, attended by both Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush.
When the White House returned to Republican rule after the 2000 election, President George W. Bush invited the Clintons to visit in June 2004.
The last modern ceremony was in 2012 with Obama’s invitation to George W. and Laura Bush.
“We may have our political differences, but the presidency goes beyond those differences,” Obama said at the time.
However, Trump has never shown any interest in joining the bipartisan ex-presidents’ club – with the living officer holders: Carter, Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama seemingly on good terms.
Trump declined to attend Biden’s 2021 inauguration alongside Obama, Clinton and George W. Bush.
Carter, who was 96 at the time, did not attend due to health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden later visited Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, at their home in Plains, Georgia, in April 2021.
Trump also scrapped an idea of receiving his COVID-19 vaccine alongside the ex-presidents.
In a new book, Brian Morgenstern, then deputy press secretary and deputy director of communications for the White House, recalls someone who urged the president to invite the former presidents to the White House — or some other place — to have them all receive They share the vaccine in a unity demonstration.
Morgenstern said he and another associate were hired to pitch the idea to Trump in his private study.
“He made a face that, shall we say, expressed a healthy skepticism,” writes Morgenstern.
“He said, ‘I’m going to get the shot. Do you want me to have the injection? I’ll get the shot.”
“But in reference to an event with the former presidents, he said, ‘Nah, I’m a different guy, you know?’