British D-Day Commemoration In Portsmouth
A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II is displayed in President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, according to a new biography by Robert Hardman.
In Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story, Hardman wrote that the President sought a “permanent reminder” of the late Queen, who died in September 2022.
The reproduction of the queen’s final official portrait, by Polish-British artist Basia Kaczmarowska-Hamilton, just four months before her death, can be found in the dining room of Trump’s Florida estate. It is said to be hung above a painting depicting a medieval vessel. “She was so great. I wanted to hang her picture in a room where there is no one else on the wall,” the president reportedly told Hardman.
Initially commissioned for the Polish Institute in London, the painting was so well-received by the monarch that she chose to keep the original for Windsor Castle.
A reproduction was subsequently delivered to the Polish Institute as originally intended.
U.S. President Trump’s State Visit To UK – Day One (Image: Getty)
Trump is said to have a deep admiration for the late Queen.
The artist gave President Trump a reproduction of the Queen’s portrait, one of the very few copies available. Following her death in 2022, Trump issued a statement saying, “What a grand and beautiful lady she was – there was nobody like her!”
He shared that he and Melania would “always cherish our time together with the Queen, and never forget Her Majesty’s generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humor.”
U.S. President Trump’s State Visit To UK – Day One (Image: Getty)
Former White House Russia advisor Fiona Hill wrote in her 2021 book, There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century, that Trump was “awestruck” by the Queen, and saw a meeting with her as a sign that he “had made it in life.”
Hardman is the only biographer to have interviewed the entire Royal Family. The upcoming biography is available for pre-order and will be released on April 21. The book is described as a celebration of the life of Queen Elizabeth II on the centenary of her birth, by the bestselling author of The Making of a King and Queen of Our Times.
The book begs the question, “She remained something of a mystery – beloved, even revered, modest yet daunting, naturally shy but globally recognizable, inscrutable and also authentic. She was grand but so familiar that we felt we knew her. Yet we would always be left asking the same question: ‘What’s she really like?'”
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