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It’s common for new U.S. presidents to add their personal touch to the White House Oval Office when they arrive. And the changes made by Joe Biden are quite a statement of intent.
The president’s office, in the west wing of the White House, was decorated with portraits and busts of some of the most iconic and influential leaders of the country’s history.
“It was important for President Biden to walk into an Oval Office that looked like the United States and began to give a vision of who he was going to be as President,” said Ashley Williams, deputy director of office operations. oval. The Washington Post during an exclusive visit.
Gone is the portrayal of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States and populist leader with whom Trump frequently identified and whose government also faced disapproval despite never being impeached (Accused).
His portrait, to the left of the “Resolute” office chair, has been replaced by that of Benjamin Franklin, one of the nation’s founding fathers and a prominent writer, scientist and philosopher.
The Post noted that Franklin’s portrait was intended to represent interest by President Biden on confidence in science in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
From his desk, Biden looked up and saw, flanking the fireplace, the busts of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, two men whose impact on the civil rights movement is regularly mentioned by the president, according to the President. American press.
Other busts placed in the room include that of leading activist Rosa Parks.
Above the fireplace hangs a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president who ruled the country during the Great Depression and World War II.
The painting by another former president, Thomas Jefferson, is accompanied by another by a man with whom he often disagreed: the former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, a “symbol of how the differences of opinion, expressed within the Republic, are essential to democracy”, noted the office of the president, according to The Post.
Portraits of other famous former presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, were also placed in pairs.
But if there is one detail that has mainly captured the attention of the public on social networks, it is the bust of the Hispanic union leader. Csar Chvez.
The bust of Chvez (1927-1993) is located just behind Biden’s desk chair, on a table and in a privileged place: among many family photos.
Chvez, originally from Arizona, was the founder of the United Farm Workers union and one of the most important Latin American leaders in defending the civil rights of Hispanics and farm workers. mainly immigrants.
The activist made popular the cry of “yes, it is possible”, created by his union partner Dolores Huerta and which years later Barack Obama adopted in his campaign for the presidency.
Another thing Biden broke up with when he arrived was the golden curtains that Trump placed when he took office in 2017.
The gold has been replaced by curtains of a darker shade of the same color and blue, which adorned this same office when Democratic President Bill Clinton was in office, reports The Washington Post.
The flags of the various branches of the military were also replaced by the American flag and another by the presidential seal.
Biden also decided to get rid of a controversial bust of the British leader Winston Churchill.
Trump had promised to return this bust to the Oval Office after it was removed by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
The then Foreign Minister Boris Johnson – now Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – then accused Obama of ” ancestral aversine for the British Empire. ”
On this occasion, his spokesperson moved away from the controversy: “The Oval Office is the president’s private office and it is up to him to decorate it as he sees fit”.
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