President Joe Biden will host former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama at the White House in early September for the unveiling of their official White House portraits, according to an Obama spokesperson.
The traditional East Room ceremony unveiling the Obamas’ portraits, usually a moment where the sitting president and the first lady fête their immediate predecessors, was put off while then-President Donald Trump was in office given the bitter, estranged relationship between the two men.
Because of the Covid pandemic, the event was further delayed after Biden took office last year. It's typically held indoors in the East Room of the White House.
The Obamas are scheduled to appear with Biden and first lady Jill Biden on Sept. 7, the Obama spokesperson said Thursday. The artists who painted the former first couple will also be revealed at that time, as has been tradition for presidential portrait unveilings since the ritual began decades ago.
The event will mark Michelle Obama’s first time returning to the White House since Jan. 20, 2017.
Official White House portraits of presidents and first ladies are separate from those that hang in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, where the Obamas unveiled theirs in February 2018.
The process is facilitated by the privately-funded White House Historical Association. Once a president and first lady select their artist or artists, the association negotiates a contract that includes a confidentiality agreement in which the artist’s identity and details of the portrait are kept secret.
The East Room unveiling ceremony has traditionally been a bipartisan affair. The Obamas hosted former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush for theirs in 2012.
“We may have our differences politically,” Obama said at the time, “but the presidency transcends those differences.”
That was not the case for Obama and Trump. Neither president was interested in participating in such an event. Biden, however, said during the 2020 campaign that he looked forward to hosting the event for Obama, his former boss, if he won the White House.
Obama’s portrait is expected to be displayed alongside his predecessors on the main floor of the White House residence.