Likeness of former UK prime minister on display after Obama replaced bust given to Bush Jr with one of Martin Luther King Jr

A bust of Winston Churchill has been placed back in the White House’s Oval Office.



In a nod to the “special relationship”, President Donald Trump appeared to make good on an agreement to put a bust of the wartime British leader back in the famous office within hours of being sworn in.

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The former UK prime minister’s renewed presence could be seen as Trump signed his first orders as the 45th president of the United States.

A sculpture of Churchill’s face first appeared in the Oval Office during George W Bush’s administration, having been loaned for the duration of his term as a personal gift from the then British prime minister, Tony Blair. However it was replaced by a bust of the civil rights champion Martin Luther King Jr during Barack Obama’s presidency and sent back to the British embassy in line with normal protocol.

Reports of the removal prompted protests from British figures including the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, who in turn was criticised when he blamed the swap on Obama’s “ancestral dislike of the British empire”.

After meeting Trump in November, the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said he was “especially pleased at his very positive reaction to the idea that Sir Winston Churchill’s bust should be put back in the Oval Office”.

The bust on show, however, is not the one loaned by Blair, but one the White House has had since the 1960s and which had, until now, been displayed in the private residence rather than the Oval Office.