In March 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump repeated a decade-old claim that former President Barack Obama removed a bust of the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and sent it back to England.
While speaking to reporters alongside the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin on St. Patrick's Day, Trump gestured to a bust on a shelf behind him and said:
That's the late, great Winston Churchill. And Barack Hussein Obama did not want his bust in this office. Did you know that? And Barack Hussein Obama sent that bust back to England. He didn't, they didn't want it. And when I came in, I was asked if I wanted it. I said, "Absolutely, I want it." And I put it right there. Winston Churchill.
Trump's words soon spread across social media (archived, archived), where some users were quick to say the president's accusation wasn't true (archived, archived, archived). Snopes readers also wrote in, asking about the claim.
Snopes' research found that more than 17 years after Obama's first inauguration, uncertainty remains around why the White House removed a bust of Churchill by the British-American sculptor Jacob Epstein from display in the Oval Office in 2009.
It was true that Bush kept a loaned bust of Churchill in the Oval Office during his tenure that was not there during Obama's terms.
There was no evidence that the bust crossed the Atlantic back to the U.K. after it left the Oval Office.
It was (and still is) undetermined exactly why that bust departed the White House around the time Obama took office. Reports at the time said the loan to Bush expired with his time in office. Obama himself suggested in a 2016 news conference that he decided to replace the Churchill bust with a bust of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
We contacted the Obama Foundation to understand exactly what happened to the Churchill bust loaned to Bush and await replies to our queries.
The White House Historical Association, which helps acquire and protect items for the White House's permanent collection, declined to comment on the bust or its removal.
Obama, reports unclear whether removal of bust was president's choice
In 2016, while speaking to reporters alongside then-U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, Obama offered his explanation for what happened to the
Obama told reporters that though his predecessor had kept a Churchill bust in the Oval Office, he decided:
... as the first African American President, it might be appropriate to have a bust of Dr. Martin Luther King in my office to remind me of all the hard work of a lot of people who would somehow allow me to have the privilege of holding this office.
Obama described the decision as "my thinking," appearing to suggest he had made an active decision to swap the Churchill bust for one of King.
Obama said in the same conference that he had put another Churchill bust outside the White House's Treaty Room, which he used as an office, and that he saw the bust "every day."
In February 2009, around a month after Obama's inauguration, the British newspaper the Telegraph similarly reported that Obama had "sent Sir Winston Churchill packing" by declining to extend a loan on a bust of the wartime leader that Bush had kept in the Oval Office.
However, three years later, when debate once again blossomed around the Churchill bust removal following a Washington Post opinion piece, the news website Mediaite reported a different statement from the British embassy.
The 2012 statement repeated that the Churchill bust had been a loan to Bush "for the duration of the Presidency" but that the loan ended when his administration did, which appeared to suggest Obama did not make an active decision on whether or not to extend the loan.
A 2010 interview with White House curator William Allman appeared to corroborate that version of events, as Allman reportedly told CBS that officials had decided to send the loaned bust back before Obama arrived in the White House.
Several Churchill busts passed through White House
According to presidential records, Bush received the Epstein bust of Churchill on July 16, 2001 (not, as the British Embassy statement claimed, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.).
At the unveiling alongside then-British Ambassador to the United States Sir Christopher Meyer, Bush said he "lamented the fact that there was not a proper bust of Winston Churchill for me to put in the Oval Office."
An Obama spokesperson wrote in 2012 that when Bush received the Epstein bust of Churchill on loan, another bust that had been in the White House collection since the 1960s "was being worked on at the time and was later returned to the residence."
According to a White House Historical Association photo, then-U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson received an Epstein bust of Churchill as a gift in 1965. That bust was likely the one out for repair when Bush received an identical one on loan in 2001.
According to a spokesperson for the U.K. Government Art Collection, the bust that it loaned to Bush was identical but separate from Johnson's bust. The collection holds a third Epstein bust of Churchill that is on display in the U.K. but has never been loaned to the U.S.
The bust Obama displayed was likely the bust gifted to Johnson, as the U.K. Government Art Collection said the White House returned the bust loaned to Bush in 2009. Obama's role in the decision to do so remains unclear.
Trump returned a bust of Churchill to the Oval Office in his first administration and, as seen in the March 17, 2026, news conference, kept it there for his second.
The U.K. Government Art Collection spokesperson said the bust that it loaned to Bush had been on loan to the White House since 2017, which marked the start of Trump's first term.
The White House statement would suggest that the second Trump administration had two identical Churchill busts (and a third bust from a different artist) in the White House collection. The spokesperson did not immediately reply to a follow-up question about where the bust given to Johnson was, as Trump was displaying the one formerly loaned to Bush.
Snopes has previously reported on numerous claims about Churchill and various other sculptures.