Winston Churchill has been effectively branded “persona non-grata” by the Democratic Party after his bust was removed from the Oval Office by the Biden administration , Trump’s former Secretary of Veterans Affairs has said.
The term, most often used in diplomacy, is used to signify that a person is no longer accepted or welcomed in a particular country.
Speaking to GB News ahead of Veterans Day, Robert Wilkie who served in the Trump cabinet and as Assistant Secretary of Defense under the George W Bush administration, hailed the wartime British Prime Minister for his stalwart devotion to the free world and fighting the Nazis.
However, he said the bust’s removal from the Oval Office under Biden’s watch indicates a “frightening indication of where we are as a people”.
The 61-year-old, who was partly educated at Salisbury Cathedral School in Wiltshire, was responding to a question about preventing extremist actions in active servicemen and veterans before explaining how a “cultural rot” has affected how people perceive history.
“I think the problem here, and it's the problem that you see in Britain, is that many of these things [extremist actions] start when people are youngsters in school, when they're no longer taught that theirs is a special society.
“You're talking about the only two nations in the history of the planet who have offered a helping hand to all the people of the world, including their enemies. And yet that is no longer celebrated.
“To give you an example, Churchill's bust has been removed twice from the White House [Oval Office], one on the first day of Barack Obama's administration and on the first day of Joe Biden's administration.
“In my hometown of New Orleans, there's a massive statue of Winston Churchill, a place he never visited but in that great port city, there is a statue that says ‘Sir Winston Churchill, protector of liberty’.
“I can't do any better than what Nixon said, that Churchill was the largest human being of the 20th century.
“The notion that he is persona non grata with one strata of one of the two national political parties in this country is a frightening indication of where we are as a people.”
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According to the White House, the Epstein-created bust was removed from the Oval Office when Bush’s administration came to an end in 2009
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In fact, there are two Churchill busts in the White House, one is a bronze bust, created by sculptor Jacob Epstein, which was loaned to the US in the aftermath of 9/11 and the other which has been on display outside the Treaty Room since the 1960s.
According to the White House, the Epstein-created bust was removed from the Oval Office (albeit not from the White House) when Bush’s administration came to an end in 2009.
Under the Obama administration, the bust remained in the White House but was not featured in pride-of-place in the Oval Office as it had done previously amid swirling rumours it had been returned to the British embassy.
Rumours of its removal and claims it had been sent back to the British embassy became so distorted that the White House issued a statement, debunking the myth.
However, with the arrival of Trump, the bust was once again placed in the Oval Office where it was photographed during a poignant handshake between then-Prime Minister Theresa May and the former president.
But just four years later, Biden once again had the bust removed from the Oval Office in what many critics saw as a “snub” to the UK.
With the arrival of Trump, the bust was once again placed in the Oval Office where it was photographed during a poignant handshake between then-Prime Minister Theresa May and the former president
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Speaking on the character of Churchill and the removal of the bust, Ben Habib, Co-Deputy Leader of the Reform Party, said it marked a “rewriting” of the UK relationship with the US.
“I cannot predict the past, let alone the future,” Habib said.
“I was brought up to believe all people are equal. I was taught the British Empire was good and something about which we could and should be proud.
“The United Kingdom was the first country to criminalise slave trading and owning. We established human rights. Without Britain standing strong, Germany would have won the Second World War. And Britain would not have been able to do so without the leadership of Winston Churchill. He was amongst the greatest Britons that ever lived.
“Now I am told that the country was racist when I was a child. White people suffer from unconscious bias. The Empire was pure evil and we must decolonise both our language and our education. We should be ashamed of our role in the slave trade; reparations are owed. We cannot be trusted to leave the European Convention of Human Rights. And Winston Churchill was a white supremacist racist who was responsible for, amongst many atrocities, the Bengal famine.
“So it does not surprise me that Sir Winston’s bust has on occasion been removed from the Oval Office.
“His presence in that office signified our special relationship with the USA. But that relationship too is being rewritten.
“Frankly, I was brought up in a much more harmonious and tolerant society than exists now. For that privilege I will always be grateful to the man who afforded it to me – the great Sir Winston Churchill.”
Ben Habib said: 'His presence in that office signified our special relationship with the USA. But that relationship too is being rewritten,'
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Adding to this, political commentator and Margaret Thatcher’s former aide Nile Gardiner said:
“The removal of the Churchill bust sculpted by Sir Jacob Epstein from the Oval Office by both Barack Obama and Joe Biden was disgraceful, and hugely disrespectful towards Great Britain.
“The eviction of the bust by two American presidents (originally loaned to President George W Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States), was a slap in the face for the British people, and a rude insult to America’s closest friend and ally.
“A future conservative US president should bring the bust back to the White House, where it belongs.”
Nile Gardiner said: 'A future conservative US president should bring the bust back to the White House, where it belongs'
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Continuing to outline how Churchill’s contributions have persisted to the present day, Wilkie said “we are a product of the cradle of democracy”.
Wilkie continued: “We [the US military] don't do well abroad if we are not attached, or we don't have attached, British soldiers.
“The cultural acuity that the British Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force bring to any of the world's hot spots makes the United States better and makes our troops safer.
“But it also keeps renewing a bond that really began to grow even before Churchill, as we realise that the mantle of Protector of the liberal world order would be seamlessly transferred and graciously transferred from London to the American Colossus after World War 2.
“I would say what is not appreciated both in Britain and in many of the elite centres of education in this country, is that the British Empire on its deathbed saved Western civilisation.
“And Churchill the hour cometh. He was the man behind that. We can only imagine what would have happened to the world, to us, if George the Sixth had pointed to Halifax and said it's you and not Churchill.”
