President Donald Trump has been widely mocked and ridiculed after he recently took to social media to gripe about a portrait of himself that’s been hanging in the Colorado Capitol for nearly six years.

On Sunday, Trump complained about the portrait in a post on his Truth Social website, writing, “Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves.” He then charged that the portrait was “purposefully distorted” to a level that he’s “never seen before.” The painting has since been taken down at the request of Republican leaders in Colorado.

Trump’s apparent fixation about his portrait has been the subject of mockery both on social media and on late night shows. During his Monday night monologue, “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart sarcastically questioned whether Trump believes he has any pictures of himself that are “flattering.”

And some people on X, formerly Twitter, slammed the president for focusing on a portrait amid the many current domestic and global concerns. “Are there not more important issues to worry about other than a picture in Colorado?” one X user wrote.

Others slammed Trump for focusing on his image, accusing him of displaying narcissistic behaviors. Narcissistic personality disorder, diagnosed by a mental health professional, is a mental health condition in which someone has an “unreasonably high sense of their own importance.” It can cause problems in various areas of one’s life, such as relationships, work, school or financial matters, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“Oh dear, poor narcissist trump melting down over a portrait done over 5 years ago. Got nothing better to do?” one X user wrote.

Trump’s gripe over his portrait isn’t all that surprising, according to experts.

Trump has publicly complained about images of himself several times before, including in 2023, when he accused Fox News of using “horrible” photos of him.

He claimed that “three people in New Hampshire” had asked him why the network used “horrible pictures” of him to promote stories.

“The coloring, distortions, everything are just so bad,” he said about the network’s photos of him at the time.

Dan P. McAdams, the Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Psychology and a professor of human development and social policy at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, said that he doesn’t know why “anyone would be surprised that Donald Trump might object strongly to a portrait of him that he does not like.”

McAdams, author of “The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump: A Psychological Reckoning,” charged that Trump “has been obsessed with his appearance since he was a high school student.”

“As he sees it, the portrait is extremely unflattering, which he takes to be an insult, and no insult is too petty for him to ignore,” he told HuffPost.

Trump didn’t share the name of the portrait’s artist (Sarah Boardman) in his Truth Social post, but he took aim at her by saying she made former President Barack Obama look “wonderful” for Obama’s portrait, but that the portrait of himself was “truly the worst.”

“She must have lost her talent as she got older,” he scoffed, before criticizing Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), whom he incorrectly suggested was responsible for orchestrating the portrait’s place in the Capitol in the first place.

A Republican in the Colorado Senate had raised more than $10,000 via crowdfunding to commission the oil painting in 2018 after a prankster placed a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a spot intended for Trump. Trump’s portrait was unveiled in 2019.

McAdams said that he doesn’t think there’s “anything else” to Trump’s recent reaction to his portrait, other than the fact that “Trump is lashing out against what he perceives to be an insult, and he has been doing this all his life.”

McAdams also pointed out that many people believe Trump displays narcissistic traits.

“As has been noted by countless observers, Trump is an extraordinarily narcissistic person,” he said.

McAdams later explained that the concept of narcissism derives from Greek mythology, which tells the story of a figure named Narcissus, who was so obsessed with his own beauty that he couldn’t resist staring at his reflection all day in a pool of water.

He said he believes Trump’s behavior is “a lot like the ancient myth.”

“Apparently, that portrait in Colorado did not fit his image of the beautiful, powerful, fierce and dominating figure that he sees when he, metaphorically speaking, gazes at his reflection in the psychological mirror,” he added.

Jacob Neiheisel, associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, said that he wasn’t “terribly surprised” by Trump’s reaction to the portrait, since the president has “taken offense at a number of perceived slights.”

“It’s probably all the better in his view that the controversy is centered in a blue state so that he can also take shots at the state’s Democratic governor at the same time,” he said.

Neiheisel later said that he doesn’t believe there’s “any doubt that Trump exhibits some traits” of a grandiose narcissist — which describes people who are characterized by having high self-esteem, a sense of personal superiority and entitlement and overconfidence, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Neiheisel, however, cautioned that he’s not a psychologist and therefore he’s not giving a professional opinion about Trump and whether or not he’s a narcissist.

“I haven’t interviewed Trump or administered any battery of questions to him that would allow me to make a determination as to whether or not he could be considered a narcissist,” he said.

But Trump’s apparent fixation on his appearance may not be all that unique among world leaders, Neiheisel added, pointing to research that suggests that narcissism may be more prevalent among people who run for office.

He also noted that some research even suggests that grandiose narcissism may be linked — directly or indirectly — to some positive outcomes, including
“higher cognitive performance in experimental settings.”

McAdams said that he believes that “many world leaders have a very strong self-promotional streak” but that he thinks Trump’s behavior — like his recent outburst over his portrait in Colorado — is still unique among world leaders today.

“Motivationally speaking, he is all about defending, glorifying and celebrating himself,” he said. “There is no other motive in his life.”