New Trump Portrait Breaks With Tradition

The White House has unveiled a new official presidential portrait of President Trump—the second of his second term. Like the portrait introduced during the transition, but unlike the smiling photo from his first term, Trump has a serious expression reminiscent of his famous 2023 mugshot, the Washington Post reports. Officials tell CBS News that the portrait, which went up in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Monday, will replace the previous photos of Trump in federal buildings.

• A break with tradition: CNN reports that Trump is in front of a black background, unlike presidents in recent decades, who were photographed in front of American flags. The last president to use a plain background was Richard Nixon. Most presidents over the last century, including Nixon, were also smiling in their official portraits.

• Comparison to Churchill photo: "The first portrait done in January was done with something called up lighting—which is lighting from below—which isn't found in the natural world often," Jeff Whetstone, director of the visual arts program at Princeton University, tells NPR. "In the new portrait, the lighting is more natural but still dramatic. And it's lighting that shows one side of the face more than the other, so there's a duality there." Whetstone compares it to a famous 1941 image of Winston Churchill that was stolen from an Ottawa hotel.
• 'Hallmarks of AI imagery': In the new portrait, "the lens is much closer to the subject than in previous official presidential portraits, and the cropping is extreme," Jason Farago writes at the New York Times. "Regardless of the actual techniques used to produce it, the photograph displays numerous hallmarks of AI imagery: symmetrical composition, imprecise detail, blurring at the edges, and shallow depth of field," Farago writes. "If the aesthetic hallmarks of the first Trump term came from television, this second administration has drawn its imagery more from Silicon Valley."
• Previous one was a 'placeholder': It's unusual for a new official portrait to be issued, but White House officials say the previous one wasn't meant to be permanent. "The old one was always meant to serve as a placeholder," an official says. "The president is the most well-known person on the planet and this new portrait taken during his second term reflects the optimism and resolve of America."