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Donald Trump and His Big Bad Painting of Himself

oh snap… d trump likes looking at d trump… who could’ve guessed…

In one way or another, pretty much everything everybody does will eventually involve art… It’s how and why that makes life interesting and worth writing about.

What’s been weird so far is that politics has been one of the most art devoid human activities I’ve come across… You would think Hillary Clinton and D. Trump would have snazzy artistic posters (think Obama’s famous Hope posters), commercials worth watching, performances worth seeing, that in one way or another they’d end up creating art. They have not done so.

What I’ve found that has involved politics is pretty simple… D. Trump’s ghostwriter and some DNC emails about screening some people. Everything else seems iffy at best.

So the fact that when I FINALLY come across some literal art associated with a politician… it’s icky and it’s Donald Trump.

In two cases, he has used money from his charity to buy himself a gift. In one of those cases — not previously reported — Trump spent $20,000 of money earmarked for charitable purposes to buy a six-foot-tall painting of himself.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-donald-trump-retooled-his-charity-to-spend-other-peoples-money/2016/09/10/da8cce64-75df-11e6-8149-b8d05321db62_story.html

Holy shit.

First off, what painter out there went “yes i DO want to paint a portrait of somebody… for themselves… this is a GOOD idea…”

Second, buying a painting of yourself with other people’s charitable donations is pretty fucked up regardless of your political affiliations (I’m not affiliated with any party and I certainly think that’s an icky thing to do).

Third… here we go…

In 2007, for instance, Trump and his wife, Melania, attended a benefit for a children’s charity held at Mar-a-Lago. The night’s entertainment was Michael Israel, who bills himself as “the original speed painter.” His frenetic act involved painting giant portraits in five to seven minutes — then auctioning off the art he’d just created.

He painted Trump.

Melania Trump bid $10,000.

Nobody tried to outbid her.

“The auctioneer was just pretty bold, so he said, ‘You know what just happened: When you started bidding, nobody’s going to bid against you, and I think it’s only fair that you double the bid,’ ” Israel said in an interview last week.

Melania Trump increased her bid to $20,000.

“I understand it went to one of his golf courses,” Israel said of the painting.

Michael Israel. Michael Israel thought it was a good idea.