Making his first attempt at redecorating the White House just hours after being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, President Donald Trump retrieved the bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and reinstalled it in the Oval Office.

The bust’s return to the Oval Office was first recognized on Friday evening by reporters, who stood by and watched Trump signing a number of executive orders on his first day of work as president.

Banishment of a wartime hero

Trump made it a priority to bring back the statuette commemorating the World War II hero – whose significance in world history was minimized by former President Barack Obama when he promptly removed the bust after taking office for his first term eight years ago.

In Churchill’s place — back in 2009 – Obama installed a bust of the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as a bust of the 16th president of the U.S., Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free black slaves around the end of the Civil War.

The former president’s decision to expel the bust of Churchill from the White House was not well received during his first historic days in office as America’s first African American president.

“The move created a wave of controversy and outrage with conservatives, who alleged that Obama removed the bust to snub the British,” TheBlaze reported.

Nearly eight years after the controversial ousting of the bust of the man who stood up to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany during some of Britain’s most perilous years, Obama’s disrespectful purge was addressed in a film produced by Dinesh D’Souza during the outgoing president’s last full year in office. In his documentary, 2016: Obama’s America, the conservative filmmaker claimed that Obama’s decision to remove the bust from the White House provided more evidence that he detested American and British imperialism around the globe.

When asked whether D’Souza’s allegation about his hatred for the U.S. and the United Kingdom as being the motive for the departure of Churchill’s bust from the Oval Office, Obama denied the claim.

Return of a legend

In preparation for his move into the White House, Trump made a request to the British government asking whether he could have the bust back so that he could return it to its rightful place in the Oval Office, according to news reports circulated last week.

Trump soon received a response from British Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesperson, who notified him that the British leader would be pleased to re-gift the Churchill bust to the White House.

“The Prime Minister is happy to loan the Churchill bust to the White House and will be delighted to view it on display when she visits this Spring,” May’s spokesperson confirmed to Trump.

The history of Churchill’s bust in the White House goes back 16 years, when Obama’s predecessor took office, but its visit there was short-lived — before it was sent away to be in the custody of British diplomats in America for eight years.”

“The bust was originally gifted to former President George W. Bush in the initial days of his presidency in 2001,” TheBlaze’s Chris Enloe informed. “Since being removed, the bust had been kept at the British Embassy in D.C.”

Martin Luther King bust on table in the Oval Office on first day of the Trump presidency.

Martin Luther King bust on table in the Oval Office on first day of the Trump presidency.

As indicated in photos posted by reporters on Friday, the bust of Rev. Martin Luther King still remains in Trump’s new workspace in the Oval Office.

Wasting little time to replace the bust of the iconic British politician and military leader to its spot in his new office, Trump made sure it was installed Friday – before his first full day of service as commander-in-chief.

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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.

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