I’d like to believe that, in a closet or an attic somewhere, there’s a portrait of Donald J. Trump that’s emotionally maturing at a normal human pace, even as the heap of callow adipose sliming the Resolute Desk remains eternally stuck in neutral.

Because shit like this is, well, not normal.

A decades-old White House tradition — the unveiling of the previous president’s portrait by the current commander in chief — will not be observed this time around, as Trump is refusing to participate.

Barack Obama did it for felonious cat painter George W. Bush, but apparently Obamagate, whatever that turns out to be, is preventing Trump from even this anodyne gesture.

NBC News:

Yet this modern ritual won't be taking place between Obama and President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. And if Trump wins a second term in November, it could be 2025 before Obama returns to the White House to see his portrait displayed among every U.S. president from George Washington to Bush. Trump is unconcerned about shunning yet another presidential custom, and he has attacked Obama to an extent no other president has done to a predecessor. Most recently he's made unfounded accusations that Obama committed an unspecified crime. Obama, for his part, has no interest in participating in the post-presidency rite of passage so long as Trump is in office, the people familiar with the matter said.

Okay, I can forgive Obama for not wanting his portrait unveiled by a guy who’s falsely claiming he’s corrupt, incompetent, and a criminal.

“It's a statement of generosity on [the part of] the current president and first lady,” former White House curator Betty Monkman said in an interview with the White House Historical Association in 2017. “And it's a very warm, lovely moment.”

Okay, that explains it. Donald Trump doesn’t do warm and lovely. It’s all about acrimony, recrimination, and McRib sauce with this guy.

Guess we’ll have to wait until 2021. Watching Joe Biden unveil Obama’s portrait will be a lot more satisfying anyway.

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