Trump Administration removes Obama-era portrait from U.S. Embassy, calling it ‘woke’
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The State Department is currently exploring options to sell the painting by artist Kehinde Wiley, adding to a growing list of the Trump Administration’s battle against what it calls “woke ideology.”
The Trump Administration is once more planting a flag, this time against the work of Kehinde Wiley.
Earlier this month, the State Department revealed it removed Wiley’s 2015 painting titled “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960,” which was commissioned in 2013 when the department was under the Obama Administration for the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic.
In a video shared on Instagram, U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Leah Campos wrote that the Trump Administration was turning away from “globalist” and “woke ideologies” and would instead embrace “American patriotism.”
Previously, Wiley’s painting, which featured four Dominican models against a floral backdrop, was covered by a photo depicting the State Department seal and the American flag. Wiley stated he studied the work of Dominican artists Celeste Woss y Gil and Gilberto Hernández Ortega as inspiration for the art.
“In the Trump Administration and under my leadership we are turning away from globalist and woke ideologies and instead embracing American patriotism and the beauty of our great country!” Campos wrote on Instagram, as the removal was soundtracked to Twisted Sisters’ “We’re Not Going To Take It.” According to the New York Times, the department is considering selling the portrait from Wiley.
Campos added in a statement via Time Magazine, “It is my intention that everything we project from US Embassy Santo Domingo, including the art and decor, reflect the beauty, strength, and commitment to liberty of the United States of America and its people.”
Conservatives have long been focused on Wiley’s work, slamming his 2012 painting “Judith and Holofernes” as “racist” for its depiction of a Black woman holding the severed head of a white woman. It was a play on a 17th-century portrait by Giovanni Baglione of the biblical story of Judith, who beheaded a general who had invaded her town to save it.
Wiley, who also painted Barack Obama’s presidential portrait for the Smithsonian in 2018, had recently come under fire for several accusations of sexual abuse. Several individuals came forth with claims about Wiley in 2024. A woman, Ogechi Chieke, claimed Wiley sexually assaulted her in 2007 and filed a lawsuit against him. He has categorically denied all accusations.
“There is no truth to Ms. Chieke’s allegations. I’ve never met her, nor do I know her,” Wiley told The Art Newspaper last year. “It’s hardly a coincidence that this latest scam is occurring in the same 12-month period where others tried to shake me down.”
After the accusations became public, three museums canceled or postponed shows dedicated to Wiley’s art, which often features men and women placed on beds of flowers or in distinct colors. The accusations and Wiley’s prior painting became an issue for one State Department spokesperson, who told TIME, “the work of an individual with such violent and racist words and depictions has no place in the America First State Department. We all serve at the pleasure of the President and artists should not be exempt from scrutiny.”
Throughout Trump’s second Administration, there have been calls to remove various works that were deemed “unpatriotic.” The maneuver has seen sweeping battles in court, from a federal judge permanently blocking the Administration from canceling 1,400 humanities grants to the proposed elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
It has also issued executive orders eliminating DEI policies and practices at all government levels, and Trump ordered the Smithsonian to remove any artwork or piece that featured “improper ideology” and “divisive narratives,” calling for a greater emphasis on American greatness instead.