The meaning and message of Trump’s new headshot
Plus: The creative typography of New York’s mayoral campaign ads spells it all out
The meaning and message of Trump’s new headshot
This diva. Just months into the new job, and President Donald Trump wanted a new headshot.
The White House unveiled a new official portrait of Trump this week in a Monday social media post that showed a framed version of the new portrait going up in a busy hallway, and the White House website and POTUS social media account avatars were all updated with the latest pic. It’s Trump’s second official White House portrait of his second term, and fourth overall. Of the four, it’s the least traditional presidential portrait of the bunch.
The last president to serve two terms before Trump, former President Barack Obama, updated his official portrait days before his second term began in 2013. The first was taken with a nondescript background and flag, no smile, while the second was shot in the Oval Office with a big grin, arms folded. In the second, Obama’s hair was visibly more grey than four years before. Each of Obama’s photos were taken by his then-chief official White House photographer Pete Souza.
This is the government’s official graphic representation of its head of state, portraiture as government document (it hangs in federal buildings). They’re professional, the presidential equivalent of a LinkedIn headshot. But Trump’s trying for a different look. Viewed as a series, Trump’s official portraits are less a testament to the passage of time and the physical toll the office takes on its holder like they were for Obama (Trump’s hair doesn’t seem to have changed since his first term) than they are a story of a man breaking from the norms of the job. Increasingly non-traditional portraits for an increasingly non-traditional president.
Trump scowled in his first official White House portrait, which was uncredited and released for his first inauguration. His second, released in October 2017, was shot by Shealah Craighead, his former chief official photographer, and it followed the formalities of the portraits of Trump’s predecessors. He smiled, it was brightly lit and set in front of a flag, and there was plenty of headspace above him.
Trump’s two latest official photos were both taken by White House chief official photographer Daniel Torok who’s taken unconventional approaches. For the third portrait, released in time for Trump’s second inauguration, the dramatic lighting and a pose were purposefully meant to recapture the angle and expression of his 2023 mugshot. He looked like he was holding a flashlight under his face to scare the kids, but he was really just doing his booking photo over, now with the final say on lighting.
His latest portrait is the first of Trump’s to be missing a U.S. flag in the background, and except for his flag lapel pin, it’s absent any details that would communicate it’s an official U.S. government portrait. “What’s interesting is they’ve removed all references to the White House setting,” Mount Holyoke College professor of fine art Paul Staiti told the New York Times. “To be sure, this makes it more personal. But I do wonder whether this is suggesting that Trump is not exactly an office holder, or not to be seen solely as the current representative of the United States.” This isn’t Trump taking the same picture as everyone else. It’s meant to look singular.
Rather than look like a government headshot, Trump’s new official photo looks editorial, like a Time cover shoot or an asset for CNN’s debate night coverage. The lighting is softer than the last portrait, and by comparison, the mugshot-inspired pic looks like an especially ham-fisted attempt to conjure something iconoclastic. (We get it, you’re a felon!) Instead, the new portrait speaks in the visual language of media and entertainment for our first reality star president.
Finally, Trump has his official glamor shot.
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The creative typography of New York’s mayoral campaign ads spells it all out
