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.’
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.'
