Featured Image Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images/REBECCA DROKE/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, News, Politics
Lucy Devine
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, News, Politics
US President Donald Trump pointed out a portrait of his assassination attempt during a meeting with European leaders this week - but social media users are confused.
Following his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday (15 August), Trump hosted several European leaders at the White House on Monday (18 August) - including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, as well as EU Commissioner President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte were also in attendance.
While the leaders were posing for press photographs in the Grand Foyer of the East Wing of the White House, Trump made a comment about one of the portraits hanging on the wall.
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The portrait in question was of Trump just moments after his assassination attempt in July 2024. The former businessman was injured during the shooting while speaking on stage at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania.
A 20-year-old, Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired at Trump from the roof of a building 100 yards away, killing one audience member and critically injuring two others.
Trump was seen clasping his ear and taking cover behind his lectern after being shot at as Secret Service agents shielded him until Crooks was shot and killed.
Images of the immediate aftermath of Trump with blood on his face and ear, pumping his fist, went viral as news of the attempted assassination spread.
It's this moment that is captured in the painting, which Trump pointed out to the European leaders, explaining: "That was not a great day."
But people were pretty taken aback by it. Sharing the clip, one person wrote on X: "Trumped pointed to his fake assassination portrait, saying it 'was a bad day' while taking the group photo with Zelenskyy and the other European leaders….they didn’t even bother to look especially Macron [sic]."
People were pretty confused over the picture, with many people making the same point.
One person said: “'That was not a great day for me, that’s why I put a 15 foot mural of it on the wall'.”
While another sarcastically wrote: "I, too, have huge portraits just dedicated to the WORST moments in my life all over my home."
And a third added: "Why would you have that hanging in the White House," while a fourth asked: "That’s actually hanging up on a wall?"
The painting was hung in April this year, replacing a portrait of former president Barack Obama.
The portrait shows Trump, with blood splattered on his face and raising his fist in the air, with the US flag in the background.
Marc Lipp is the artist behind the piece, which was gifted to the White House by Andrew Pollack, a school safety expert.
Trump has faced controversy in the past after appearing to show a card of his assassination attempt to a group of children during the White House's annual Easter Egg Roll in April.