A bronze bust of Martin Luther King Jr., which had previously been featured prominently in the Oval Office, has been quietly removed from the Oval Office. According to USA Today, the bust was moved a few weeks ago and is now located in President Donald Trump’s private dining room, still only a short distance away from the Oval Office.
The bust was originally moved into the Oval Office at the beginning of Obama’s first term, where it remained during Obama’s administration, Trump’s first term, and Biden’s administration.
Now, the new administration has quietly made a symbolic shift in decor. The bust of MLK Jr. appears to have been moved sometime after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to the White House in April, according to MeidasTouch.
Changing Oval Office artwork is not a drastic move. Every president adjusts the room’s decoration to match his personal taste, often bringing in new furniture, paintings, and rugs, among other changes. Trump made a number of more prominent changes to the room, including adding a significant amount of gold decor, displaying the flags of the different military branches, and replacing Biden’s central portrait of FDR with a portrait of George Washington.
When Obama brought the MLK Jr. bust into the Oval Office, he in turn had removed a bust of Winston Churchill to replace it with the image of the civil rights leader. Trump had returned the Churchill sculpture to its place in the Oval Office and displayed it alongside the MLK Jr. bust during his first term, but Churchill was promptly removed by the Biden administration. On the first day of Trump’s second term, he fulfilled “a promise he made after his election win and [returned the] Churchill bust to the place it was prominently displayed during his first term,” according to America’s National Churchill Museum. (RELATED: Churchill Bust Returns to the Oval Office)
Despite the change in decor, Trump and his administration have not neglected to acknowledge the civil rights leader.
Earlier that day, an incoming White House official also echoed the voice of MLK Jr. when announcing Trump’s executive order that ended DEI practices in the federal government. The official said, “This order is meant to return to the promise and the hope that was captured by civil rights champions, that one day all Americans can be treated on the basis of their character, not by the color of their skin.”
The Trump administration has also been working to release records relating to MLK Jr.’s assassination. However, a federal judge has been slow-walking the administration’s request to unseal the FBI’s records on King’s assassination. District Judge Richard Leon said because the case was delicate, “We’re going to go slowly. Little steps.” The records were already scheduled to be unsealed in 2027, and the legal proceedings may last long enough that they prevent the records’ early release entirely.
Members of King’s family have opposed the release of the files and asked in a statement that they be “provided the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release.” The family has both personal and financial reasons to be concerned about the civil rights leader’s reputation, which may be jeopardized with the release of these documents.
Previously released FBI documents, reported on in detail by MLK Jr. historian David Garrow, have revealed worrying details about the civil rights leader’s activities, as well as the FBI’s own espionage on American citizens. The FBI documents recount the graphic details of MLK Jr.’s numerous extramarital affairs and sexual engagements, including multiple orgies. In one shocking instance, MLK Jr. is recorded having “looked on, laughed and offered advice” as his friend forcibly raped a woman.
Garrow’s report concluded by reflecting on the files’ meaning for King’s legacy: “The suggestion — actually more than one — that he either actively tolerated or personally employed violence against any woman … poses so fundamental a challenge to his historical stature as to require the most complete and extensive historical review possible.” He added that “there is no question that a profoundly painful historical reckoning and reconsideration inescapably awaits” when the full tape recordings are released.
Given the scope of the documents already declassified, it is uncertain exactly what will be learned from the new files the Trump administration hopes to release. However, as its legal battle continues, the administration continues to argue that “the release of all records in the Federal Government’s possession pertaining to each of those assassinations is also in the public interest.”
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