DENVER — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis took a swipe at President Donald Trump with an April Fool’s Day joke about portraits in the state Capitol.
Polis shared a cartoon portrait of himself – and even appeared to have a poster of it made – to poke fun at the recent removal of Trump’s portrait from the Capitol walls after the president disapproved of it. The portrait had hung inside the Colorado Capitol for five years, but Trump last month took to his social media to criticize the painting as “purposefully distorted.”
At the time, Polis took the high road, thanking the president for his “interest” in Colorado’s Capitol in a statement via a spokesperson for his office.
“Gov. Polis was surprised to learn the President of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado State Capitol and its artwork,” the statement read in part.
Polis’s office used the unofficial pranksters’ holiday Tuesday to parody the ordeal.
“No one likes an unflattering photo or painting of themselves,” the governor’s post read, mirroring the opening line of Trump’s post. “Which is why I went in a different direction for my official portrait. I’ve always been proud to support Colorado art, and this portrait was an exciting opportunity to do exactly that while embedding my image into the fabric of Colorado's history. I’m proud of the final product and want to thank the artists for their artistic vision, and personally feel that I have never looked better.”
No one likes an unflattering photo or painting of themselves, which is why I went in a different direction for my official portrait. I’ve always been proud to support Colorado art, and this portrait was an exciting opportunity to do exactly that while embedding my image into the… pic.twitter.com/SO6YIsuyg4
— Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) April 1, 2025
The fake portrait is drawn in the style of the South Park cartoon, which is based on Colorado’s Park County and whose creators now own the famous restaurant Casa Bonita.
His team mocked up an image of the cartoon headshot hanging on the walls of the Capitol, and a video post appeared to show an in-jest “unveiling” of the portrait.
Colorado Republicans raised the funds to commission the Trump portrait, which was unveiled back in 2019. Trump voiced his displeasure with his portrait in a post on the evening of March 23, 2025 and it was removed the next day. A new portrait to hang in its place, the AP reported, could take time.
- Denver7 spoke to the artist who painted the Trump portrait about the pressure involved in painting the president. See our story with Sarah Broadman in the video player below: