Press secretary Jen Psaki says Biden will restart tradition and invite Trump back to White House for his presidential portrait unveiling - despite Donald not affording same courtesy to Obama
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that she didn't think President Joe Biden would break tradition like former President Donald Trump - and snub his predecessor out of a portrait ceremony.
'I have no portrait revealings or portrait plans or portrait events to preview for you, but I have not been given any indication that we would break with tradition in that regard,' Psaki said, answering a reporter's question about the ceremony that - before Trump - had been a fixture of a president's first term for decades.
In May, NBC News reported that Trump decided against inviting former President Barack Obama to the White House for a portrait unveiling ceremony, citing people familiar with the matter.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that she had 'not been given any indication that we would break with tradition' as far as President Joe Biden hosting President Donald Trump to the White House for an official portrait unveiling
President Donald Trump broke a decades-long tradition last year by not inviting President Barack Obama to the White House for a portrait unveiling ceremony. Sources told NBC News that Obama wasn't interested in seeing Trump face-to-face
The last portrait ceremony to happen at the White House was in May 2012 when President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama invited President George W. Bush (center left) and Laura Bush (center right) to the White House
Sources told NBC that Obama also wasn't interested in seeing Trump face-to-face.
While Obama had invited Trump to the White House in the days following his surprise election victory in 2016, Trump continued to criticize the Democrat during the Republican's four-year term.
Psaki's answer indicated that both Obama and Trump could be invited to the Biden White House for their portraits to be hung.
The portrait unveiling ceremony tradition goes back decades.
It originated as a first ladies event - with first lady Lady Bird Johnson inviting Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman to the White House, along with family and friends, for East Room ceremonies.
The Roosevelt ceremony took place in February 1966.
Former first lady Jackie Kennedy made her only return trip to the White House after President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1971 to see her late husband's portrait hung.
President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush (center right) invited President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton (cente left) to the White House for a portrait unveiling in June 2004
President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton (center left) brought in first lady Barbara Bush (center right) and President George H.W. Bush to the Whtie House for a portrait unveiling ceremony in July 1995
First ladies Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan (center left) have a giggle as they observe President Ronald Reagan's (center right) portrait being unveiled during the tenure of President George H.W. Bush
President Richard Nixon and first lady Pat Nixon invited her for a ceremony.
She agreed to come only for a private viewing.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter was the first president to play host, bringing President Gerald Ford and former first lady Betty Ford to the White House for an East Room ceremony.
He had defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential race.
The modern tradition started then - though with a caveat, Carter never has a ceremony at the Reagan White House four years later.
'It would probably be out of his character to want a big ceremony in Washington that soon,' Gerald Rafshoon, the Carter White House's communications director, told NBC News. 'I would imagine he opted not to have it.'
President George H.W. Bush, who served as Reagan's vice president, brought the Reagans back to the White House in November 1989.
President Bill Clinton, who defeated Bush in the 1992 election, held a ceremony for his predecessor in July 1995 that both Bush and first lady Barbara Bush attended.
With the White House swinging back to Republican rule after the 2000 election, President George W. Bush had the Clintons come visit in June 2004.
The final modern ceremony took place in 2012, with the Obamas invitation to George W. and Laura Bush.
'We may have our differences politically, but the presidency transcends those differences,' Obama said at the time.
Trump, however, hasn't shown any interest in joining the bi-partisan ex-presidents club - with the living officer holders Carter, Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama seemingly on good terms.
Trump broke tradition last month by refusing to attend Biden's inauguration, landing in West Palm Beach, Florida right before the Democrat was sworn-in.
Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama all attended and participated in a special ceremony at the Unknown Soldier in a show of bipartisan unity after the January 6 insurrection.
Carter didn't attend because at 96-years-old he's high risk if exposed to the coronavirus.