Former President Joe Biden has continued a tradition started by President Ronald Reagan, who left behind a letter in the White House for his successor, George H.W. Bush.
President Donald Trump has hung a copy of the Declaration of Independence in the Oval Office, according to images he shared on social media.
The Republican president's official account on X showed two images Monday of a framed copy of the historical document hanging on the wall not far from the president's desk.
In one image, Trump is moving aside heavy dark blue curtains hung around the document to look underneath.
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WATCH HEREIt was not immediately clear where the copy came from and when it was installed.
“The Nationals Archives delivered the Declaration of Independence to the White House at the President’s request. It is displayed in the Oval Office where it will be carefully protected and preserved," press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
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SIGN UP The original version of the Declaration of Independence is very faded and displayed in the Archives' building. On the version hanging in the White House, according to the images posted, the words are clear and legible.
The White House and National Archives did not respond to messages inquiring what version of the document was in the White House.
Politics
Trump's post did not include any other information than the words: “The Declaration of Independence in the Oval Office.”
In an interview with FOX's Laura Ingraham where Trump gave a tour of the Oval Office, the president showed Ingraham the document hung on the wall behind a curtain.
“It's never been up. It's been in the vaults for many, many decades. And they said we have to do something like drapes or something, because the light eventually affects it. And it's very cool. Isn't that great, just went up yesterday,” the president said.
The document is among the new decor Trump has installed. According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump has brought in a painting of Andrew Jackson, a portrait of George Washington above the fireplace, a bust of Winston Churchill, along with a Trumpian-touch: a button that the president pushes to order a Diet Coke.
Leavitt is one of three Trump administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First- and Fifth-Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
So is the copy the president has the original Declaration of Independence?
According to Harvard University's Declaration Resources Project, there was only one signed copy of the Declaration of Independence.
"There is only one copy of the engrossed and signed Declaration of Independence, in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. This copy was produced and signed several weeks after the Declaration of Independence was first published," according to Harvard.
The first copies of the Declaration in 1776 were printed by John Dunlap, the official printer of Congress. It is believed there were originally somewhere around 200 copies made, with 26 still in existence or with their location known, reports the National Archives.
There are 26 surviving Dunlap copies of the declaration, according to the National Archives. They are in the following locations:
- National Archives, Washington, DC
- Library of Congress, Washington, DC (two copies)
- Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD
- University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (two copies)
- Independence National Historic Park, Philadelphia, PA
- American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
- Scheide Library, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
- New York Public Library, New York
- Morgan Library, New York
- Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA
- Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
- Chapin Library, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
- Yale University, New Haven, CT
- American Independence Museum, Exeter, NH
- Maine Historical Society, Portland, ME
- Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
- Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, IL
- J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, Dallas Public Library, Dallas, TX
- Declaration of Independence Road Trip [Norman Lear and David Hayden]
- Private collector
- National Archives, United Kingdom (three copies)
It is unclear which version the president has in the Oval Office and where it came from.
