Trying to straighten out Who’s Who in the halls of the White House

Here’s a story out of Washington that sounded weird when I first heard it, and then made more sense when I looked into it.

Listening to public radio recently, I heard a reporter claim that the White House had just replaced a portrait of Hillary Clinton with one of President Trump. Implying that the president’s people still have a dislike for Hillary?

Snopes labeled the rumor false. So what does it say about the reporter who was on the radio, breaking the news about the portrait switch?

What I found out later is that Hillary’s portrait has been loaned out by the White House to a Bill Clinton presidential museum in Arkansas. The White House says it was up to them how to replace the Hillary portrait. So whose idea was it to put Donald on the wall usually reserved for First Ladies? How about the Mona Lisa, or Whistler’s Mother, American Gothic, anybody? An Andy Warhol rendition of Marilyn Monroe?

So for now, there’s a Donald Trump portrait on a wall next to former First Lady Pat Nixon. And some people on line are calling her ‘Patricia Nixon,’ which was never really her name. Dick Nixon’s wife was actually named Thelma Catherine Ryan Nixon, and she somehow got the nickname Pat. Get the picture? There’s enough confusion out of Washington. We could use less of it in the portrait gallery.