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Trump biographer Tim O’Brien talks about his years covering the developer turned reality star turned president—including a bizarre incident involving a fake impressionist painting.

twodotsknowwhy

This is really interesting, so Trump had this painting hanging in his private jet, where he was giving an interview. The reporter, recognizing the painting, asked Trump if it was an original Renoir, not because he didn’t know, but because he wanted to see if Trump would tell the truth.

Typically, Trump lied and said it was. The reporter than told him, no it’s not an original. Trump stuck to his lie, swearing it was. When the reporter told him that it was a copy of a very famous painting and the original was hanging in the Chicago Museum of Art, Trump stuck to his lie.

Even when presented with an easy to verify fact and a person who knows the truth, Trump continued to lie, to no end. They were the only people on the plane who were privy to the conversation, so Trump couldn’t exactly convince someone. The lie served no purpose, other than to boost Trump’s own ego (after all, had he just replied, “no it’s a copy, I just like the painting” no one would fault him for that), but Trump needed to be the guy who has a genuine Renoir in his private plane, even when he wasn’t.

And then, even after caught in the act, the very next day, Trump bragged to the same guy about the painting being real, with no prompting. They were on the plane again, and with no prompting, he pointed to the painting and said, to the guy who caught him lying about it just 24 hours earlier, “you see that? That’s a genuine Renoir”

gehayi

For the record, here is the link to the picture at the Art Institute of Chicago. Interestingly, the Art Institute provides the provenance of the painting.

Ownership History

Sold by the artist to Durand-Ruel, Paris, July 7, 1881, for 1,500 francs. [1] Sent by Durand-Ruel, Paris, to Durand-Ruel, New York, 1922. [2] Sold by Durand-Ruel, New York, to Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn, Chicago, Feb. 4, 1925, for $100,000. [3] Bequeathed by Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn (died 1932) to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.

The original painting by Renoir, Two Sisters (on the Terrace) is not, nor was it ever, the property of Donald Trump.

To quote the article:

While this story is comical and sad and utterly bizarre on so many levels, it’s also emblematic of Trump’s very essence. “He believes his own lies in a way that lasts for decades,” O’Brien told me. “He’ll tell the same stories time and time again, regardless of whether or not facts are right in front of his face.”