Trump Was Once Adamant His Renoir Replica Was Actually The Original

Ever hear the one about Trump’s Renoir? While researching his 2005 book TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, journalist Tim O’Brien and and Donald Trump boarded Trump’s private jet to Los Angeles, where, O’Brien recounted to Vanity Fair, a painting in the impressionistic style of Renoir hung. O’Brien asked Trump if the painting was an original, and Trump replied that it was. But the question had been a formality; O’Brien knew for a fact that it wasn’t an original, because he’d seen the original many times.

“‘Donald, it’s not,’ O’Brien said adamantly. ‘I grew up in Chicago, that Renoir is called Two Sisters on the Terrace, and it’s hanging on a wall at the Art Institute of Chicago.’ He concluded emphatically: ‘That’s not an original.’ Trump, of course, did not agree, but O’Brien dropped the conversation topic and moved on with his interview..the next day, when they boarded the plane to head back to New York City, Trump again pointed to the painting, and as if the conversation had never happened, he pointed to the fake and proclaimed, “You know, that’s an original Renoir.” O’Brien, chose not to engage, and dropped the conversation.”

Donald Trump repeating a lie so much it wears the interviewer down: sound familiar? “He believes his own lies in a way that lasts for decades…He’ll tell the same stories time and time again, regardless of whether or not facts are right in front of his face.” O’Brien told Vanity Fair of the now-President. It’s “one of the reasons that he’s so dangerous.” He has his own version of the truth. If the man will dig his heels in over something as essentially frivolous as jet decorations, the question becomes, is there anything he won’t lie about? Actually, since taking office, he has lied a lot.

Later, after TrumpNation came out and claimed that The Donald was not a billionaire but a multi-millionaire (the shame!), Trump tried to sue O’Brien for “malice,” but the case was tossed out of court. And even though Trump later traded up for a bigger jet, the faux Renoir is still hanging; O’Brien spotted it in the Trump apartment during the then-First Family-elect’s 60 Minutes interview after the election.

Lest you think the case of the Renoir come down to a he said/he said, these facts (like many of the facts Trump seems to think journalists don’t have access to) are readily check-able online. Here’s a picture from the 60 minutes interview where you can see a painting over Donald Jr.’s shoulder, behind a camera. And here’s the listing for Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s 1881 painting Two Sisters (On the Terrace). It does indeed hang in the Art Institute of Chicago’s European Painting and Sculpture wing, in Gallery 201.

Related: Donald Trump Won’t Be Meeting Queen Elizabeth Anytime Soon