News

Donald Trump has vowed to return a bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office as a ‘mark of respect’ to Britain’s great wartime leader.

Donald Trump has vowed to return a bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office as a ‘mark of respect’ to Britain’s great wartime leader.

The bronze bust was removed by ‘woke’ Joe Biden when he defeated Trump in 2020 and was replaced with a bust of Hispanic union leader Cesar Chavez.

A self-professed Anglophile whose mother was Scottish, Trump has described Churchill as his idol.

Last night a source close to Trump said: ‘One of the first things he will do is bring the Churchill bust back into the Oval Office as a mark of respect.’

‘Donald idolizes Churchill and believes he’s the greatest leader the world has ever seen. He will restore him to a position of honor.’

Trump has previously called the Oscar-winning film The Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman as Churchill, as ‘my favorite film ever.’

The Churchill bust, by English modernist sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein, was a gift from the Wartime Friends of Winston Churchill to President Lyndon B Johnson in 1965.

It took pride of place in the Oval Office until 2009 when Barack Obama replaced it with one of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

At the time former prime minister Boris Johnson, who penned a best-selling biography of Churchill, described the Obama’s snub as ‘an ancestral dislike of the British Empire’.

When Trump beat Hillary Clinton – who ran for the White House after Obama served the maximum two terms in office – in the 2016 election he immediately removed the Martin Luther King bust and restored Churchill ‘to his rightful place.’

Trump condemned protestors who daubed ‘racist’ on a statue of Churchill in London’s Parliament Square during the Black Lives Matters protests.

The source said: ‘He thought it was shameful people were attacking Churchill’s image when Churchill saved the world from the tyranny of Hitler.’

Trump’s close friend Nigel Farage this week called Trump’s trouncing of Kamala Harris ‘the greatest comeback since Churchill’, referring to the fact that Churchill was defeated in the 1945 general election only to return to power in 1951.

Trump forged close ties with the Churchill family during his first term in office, visiting Churchill’s birthplace Blenheim Palace and befriending the 12th Duke of Marlborough, whom he affectionately calls ‘The Dook.’

The Duke, also known as Jamie Blandford, sealed their friendship with a four-day trip to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in 2019.

Whether the return of the Churchill bust to the Oval Office smooths relations between the president elect and the Labour government remains to be seen.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy had described Trump as ‘deluded, dishonest, xenophobic narcissist and ‘no friend to Britain’ in a 2019 tweet.

Historian and Churchill biographer Andrew Roberts (aka Lord Roberts of Belgravia) said: ‘This is excellent news, but only makes sense if President Trump also backs it up by adopting Churchill’s signature policy of defiance against totalitarian dictatorships that invade their neighbors without provocation.’

Broadcaster and former Conservative MP Rory Stewart said: ‘I’m delighted that the bust of Winston Churchill is going back into the Oval office. Whatever we all think of Donald Trump and I am – to put it mildly – no fan it’s very important for Britain that we retain a positive relationship with the President of the United States – which remains the indispensable power in the world and the linchpin of the international order.’

Lord Michael Dobbs, author of the House of Cards trilogy said: ‘It’s a beautiful sculpture. Churchill himself was half-American – his mother Jenny was born in Brooklyn.

‘He believed that partnership between our two countries was the best guarantee of a safe world. It’s a sign of huge hope that President Trump wants to draw inspiration from him.

‘It would also be profoundly helpful if Labour Cabinet Ministers stopped insulting him.’

Last night Churchill’s grandson Lord Nicholas Soames told the Mail on Sunday: ‘I am very glad obviously. That’s lovely. I am glad he is doing that. I am delighted.’

Related Posts

Cop29 climate deal worth £240BILLION is finally struck but excludes China – as developing countries say the sum is ‘too little, too late’

Wealthy countries yesterday agreed to triple the amount of aid they pay to developing nations to tackle climate change in a last-minute deal at the Cop29 summit. Developed countries including the UK, US and EU nations agreed to pay $300billion (£239billion) a year – up from the $100billion they pay now. The sum was described by the United Nations as ‘an insurance policy for humanity’. But the action – which excludes the world’s biggest polluter China – was dismissed as ‘too little, too late’ by developing countries.

Highly paid prisoners are earning more on average than the prison officers who guard them, shocking figures reveal

Britain’s highest-paid inmates are earning more on average than the prison officers who guard them, shocking data shows. Last year’s highest-earning prisoner had a net salary after tax of £36,715, while prison officers working outside London are paid £32,448. Nine other inmates had net earnings of more than £22,900 last year, Freedom of Information figures obtained by the Sunday Telegraph show.

Laos doctor who treated ‘methanol poisoning’ victim, 19, has told of how she went from confused to comatose in half an hour then died nine days later

A doctor who treated a teenage backpacker killed by poisoned alcohol in Laos has told how she went from confused to suffering a coma within just half an hour. Holly Bowles, 19, of Melbourne, Australia, died from suspected methanol poisoning on Friday during her travels, just one day after the death of her best friend Bianca Jones. Dr Yaher, from the district hospital in the town of Vang Vieng, was the first medical professional to treat Ms Bowles – one of six tourists who lost their life after consuming spirits contaminated with the chemical methanol.

Blinken mocked for hosting State Department ‘cry sessions’ after officials have ‘personal meltdown’ over Trump victory

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is under fire after being accused of holding therapy ‘cry sessions’ for department staffers upset over Donald Trump’s election victory. Blinken, who is expected to be replaced by Marco Rubio in January, has frequently clashed with the Republican-controlled Congress, being held in contempt in September for skipping a hearing on the disastrous exit from Afghanistan. California Congressman and Trump ally Darrell Issa wrote an open letter to Blinken smashing the State Department for the rumored counseling sessions over Trump’s win, calling them ‘disturbing.’

We used to love our town’s Christmas market… but anti-social yobs, rip-off food prices and stalls selling tat have ruined it! How Britain’s favourite festive day out became a source of annual dread for locals

Locals living in the shadow of Britain’s biggest Christmas markets claim the annual Bavarian tradition is being tainted by anti-social behaviour and rip off food and drinks which have priced them out of their high streets. Residents in Newcastle, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester have all reported seeing the cost of their annual trip to their local market soar this year in an un-festive continuation of the cost of living crisis. Meanwhile, visitors to London’s Winter Wonderland have said that the Hyde Park attraction – where a pint of beer can sell for as much as £12 – is now unaffordable.

Influencer arrested for fleecing Target with cunning checkout barcode hack and flaunting goods on TikTok

A glamorous influencer has been arrested for shoplifting from a Target after she flaunted the goods in a video on TikTok. Marlena Velez, 22, who has nearly 300,000 followers on the video sharing app in which she posts videos about her life as a mom to two kids, is facing petty theft charges for allegedly stealing more than $500 from the Target store in Cape Coral, Florida on October 30. Local police said they were called to the store last Wednesday for a report of a retail theft, and when officers arrived on the scene, loss prevention staff told them that an unknown female entered the store and selected a number of items.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *