Claim:
The Trump administration destroyed a portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama while demolishing the East Wing of the White House in October 2025.
Rating:
Context
The portrait in question was hung in the Ground Floor Corridor of the White House. This area was not part of the now-demolished East Wing. There was no evidence the Trump administration or anyone else destroyed the 2022 portrait.
In October 2025, as satellite images showed the Trump administration’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House, a claim (archived) circulated online that the demolition work had destroyed a portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama.Â
One Facebook post featured an edited image of the East Colonnade in the East Wing of the White House, the official portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama, unveiled in 2022, and satellite imagery of the site of the demolished East Wing.
That user wrote: “Liberals cannot believe this beautiful portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama has been demolished with the East Wing. They have one question for MAGA: ‘Is this really what you voted for?!'”
The claim also spread in various forms on X (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived).
The Obamas unveiled their official presidential and first lady portraits in September 2022. Since then, Michelle Obama’s portrait had been hung in the Ground Floor Corridor of the White House alongside other first lady portraits, a tradition started by Edith Roosevelt in 1902. The Ground Floor Corridor was not part of the demolished East Wing.
Searches for “‘Michelle Obama,’ official, portrait, ‘White House,’ destroyed,” on Google, Yahoo and Bing produced no evidence that the Trump administration or anyone else had destroyed the 2022 portrait. Reputable news media organizations would likely have covered such a story if it were true. Similarly, searches of “‘Michelle Obama,’ official, portrait, moved, to, ‘East Wing,'” on the same search engines uncovered no results suggesting her portrait had ever been moved to the East Wing.
White House press office spokesperson Davis Ingle said via email: “The Michelle Obama portrait was never even in the East Wing to begin with, and everything that was in the East Wing was preserved. These are dumb internet rumors that I am surprised you even need to ask about.”
Given the above, we have rated this claim as false.
Snopes contacted the White House Historical Association (which commissioned official portraits of presidents and first ladies), the Obama Foundation and Sharon Sprung, the artist who painted the 2022 Michelle Obama portrait, to confirm the artwork’s current location and await replies to our queries.
We have previously investigated numerous claims regarding Michelle Obama, including a rumor that she agreed to repay the Treasury $2.3 million that she received for “White House expenses.”
Sources
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime.” SFMOMA, https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/amy-sherald-american-sublime/. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
“BBC Verify Live: White House Satellite Image Shows East Wing Demolished to Make Way for Ballroom.” BBC News, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cgmx8pwvgz0t. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
‘Former First Lady Michelle Obama on Stage during the Unveiling Of…’ Getty Images, 23 Jul. 2024, https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/september-7-2022-former-first-lady-michelle-obama-on-stage-news-photo/2162477365.
‘Former President Barack Obama and His Wife Former First Lady Michelle…’ Getty Images, 10 Sep. 2022, https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/september-7-2022-former-president-barack-obama-and-his-wife-news-photo/1243088592.
Janse, Alejandra Marquez. “I Went on the New White House Tour. This Is What You Can Now See.” NPR, 2 Nov. 2024. Culture. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2024/11/01/nx-s1-5164579/white-house-tour-update-how-to.
“Mrs. Obama and Sharon Sprung at Portrait Unveiling.” WHHA (En-US), https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/fotoware?id=D59D5B012C094615%20AD8A0D00A4F53277. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
“Obama White House Portraits: The Artists.” WHHA (En-US), https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-white-house-1600-sessions/obama-white-house-portraits-the-artists. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
Overview of the East Wing. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/firstlady/east-wing.html. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
Rascouët-Paz, Anna. ‘Trump Demolished Entire White House East Wing?’ Snopes, 23 Oct. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-east-wing-white-house/.
‘Satellite Images Show Extent of Demolition at the White House’. BBC News, 24 Oct. 2025, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c4gkrnn4892o.
SisumD. Michelle Obama. Text. 12 Sep. 2019, https://npg.si.edu/learn/classroom-resource/michelle-obama.
“The Ground Floor Corridor: White House Video Tour.” WHHA (En-US), https://www.whitehousehistory.org/videos/the-ground-floor-corridor-white-house-video-tour. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
“The White House Portrait of Michelle Obama.” The Art of Sharon Sprung, https://www.sharonsprung.com/11568353-white-house-portrait-of-michelle-obama-by-sharon-sprung. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
‘Unveiling of President and Mrs. Obama’s Official Portraits’. WHHA (En-US), https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/fotoware?id=337642EAB4C34467%20BE179171A8AFD06C. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
White House Historical Association. “Unveiling of the Official White House Portraits of the Obamas.” YouTube, 14 Sep. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNm0meZhmT8.
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJW-Nc-ksWU. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
