President confirms that bust of British war leader disappeared from Oval Office to be replaced by Martin Luther King Jr

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Barack Obama has explained why a bust of Winston Churchill disappeared from the Oval Office after he was accused by Boris Johnson of removing it out of hostility to British history.

A rumour that Obama had got rid of the Churchill bust first emerged in 2012, prompting alarm about the state of the “special relationship” between the two countries.

Fact-check: did Obama really remove a Churchill bust from the Oval Office? Read more

At the time, the White House published a blogpost that said the rumour was “100% false”, going on to state: “The bust still in the White House. In the Residence. Outside the Treaty Room.”

However, there were actually two Churchill busts – one that was on loan to president George W Bush from 2001 to 2009, which sat in the Oval Office, and a second that the White House has had since the 1960s.

The White House had argued that the first bust had been removed simply because the start of Obama’s presidency coincided with the end of the bust’s loan.

However, the president confirmed he did have a hand in its removal from the Oval Office, citing the lack of space and clutter in the room. As the first African-American president, he said he thought it was right to have a bust of Martin Luther King Jr “to remind him of the people who helped get him there”.

But he confirmed that there was still a bust of Churchill in the White House residence outside his office, which he saw every day.

“I love Winston Churchill, love the guy” he added.