{"id":198684,"date":"2026-01-30T21:11:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/critics-aghast-as-white-house-displays-framed-photo-of-trump-with-putin-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T21:11:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:11:05","slug":"critics-aghast-as-white-house-displays-framed-photo-of-trump-with-putin-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/critics-aghast-as-white-house-displays-framed-photo-of-trump-with-putin-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics aghast as White House displays framed photo of Trump with Putin – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmaker from Estonia says photo celebrates \u2018the greatest war criminal of the 21st century\u2019
Donald Trump<\/a> has apparently added a framed photo of himself standing with Vladimir Putin<\/a> to the White House decor, prompting criticism from a senator, members of the media and beyond.
Newly surfaced photos from the Palm Room, which<\/a> connects the West Wing to the executive residence, show a framed image of the US president and the Russian president at their summit in Alaska last August<\/a>. Notably, that event marked the first in-person meeting <\/a>between US and Russian leaders since<\/a> Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. The meeting drew complaints from Democrats who accused<\/a> him of \u201ccozying up\u201d to Putin, and rolling out \u201cthe red carpet\u201d for the Russian leader \u201cinstead of \u201cstanding with Ukraine and our allies\u201d.
The recently added framed photo was first noted by the PBS White House correspondent Elizabeth Landers on Tuesday, who shared two<\/a> images of the photo hanging in the Palm Room, positioned right above a photo of Trump with one of his grandchildren. A Bloomberg photographer also captured the display on Tuesday.
The Palm Room typically serves as a lobby for visitors. Trump posted<\/a> images of the renovated Palm Room in late December.
In a statement to the Guardian when asked why this particular photo was selected for display at this time, a White House spokesperson said that \u201cthe Alaska Summit was a historic moment that helped bring Ukraine and Russia, whose brutal war was brought on by Joe Biden\u2019s incompetence, closer to a deal\u201d.
\u201cThis is one of many accomplishments that President Trump chooses to feature at the White House, where photographs are rotated frequently to highlight Presidential travel,\u201d they added.
A White House official also said that it was not unusual for the administration to hang up photos around the complex of the president\u2019s public meetings and events. They also said that there were photos of several other instances when Trump met with world leaders, and that the photos around the complex were frequently updated and rotated.
The display drew a reaction from Moscow, with Kirill Dmitriev<\/a>, Putin\u2019s special envoy, responding<\/a> to the framed photo on X, saying: \u201cGood. A picture is worth a thousand words,\u201d followed by several emojis, including a dove, a Russian flag, a handshake and an American flag.
Others were quick to criticize the decision to display the image.
\u201cPutting Putin above the American people and his own family,\u201d the Virginia senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, said<\/a> on social media. \u201cAlmost a little too on the nose.\u201d
Marko Mihkelson, the chair of Estonia\u2019s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said<\/a> of the photo: \u201cIf it is true that the US president considers it appropriate to hang on the White House wall a photo of the greatest war criminal of the 21st century, then a just and sustainable peace will have to wait. Unfortunately.\u201d
The CNN broadcaster Jake Tapper called it an \u201cinteresting moment to commemorate\u201d.
\u201cBefore the summit, Trump threatened \u2018severe consequences\u2019 if Putin didn\u2019t agree to a ceasefire. A red carpet was literally rolled out for Putin on US soil but still he didn\u2019t agree to one and Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine continues to this day,\u201d Tapper said<\/a>.
The newly added photo comes as Trump has worked to renovate different parts<\/a> of the White House since retaking office last year, including demolishing the East Wing<\/a> in order to build a $300m ballroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmaker from Estonia says photo celebrates \u2018the greatest war criminal of the 21st century\u2019Donald Trump has apparently added a framed photo of himself standing with Vladimir Putin to the White House decor, prompting criticism from a senator, members of the media and beyond.Newly surfaced photos from the Palm Room, which connects the West Wing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-198684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}