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Utah Artist Paints Trump Making A Break For The Endzone

Jon McNaughton

Utah artist Jon McNaughton has become known for his depictions of President Donald Trump. As an ardent supporter of the president, McNaughton often portrays Trump in a heroic light.

His collection of paintings includes a scene where the president and some of his staff are crossing a literal swamp in D.C. Then there’s the one showing Trump holding a magnifying glass up to Robert Mueller’s face — it’s called “Expose the Truth.”

And last week the 53-year-old Provo-based artist released his latest addition, the president making a run for the end zone.

In “All-American Trump” the president is shown in an old-timey red uniform and leather helmet with the number 45 emblazoned across his chest. He’s running ahead of blue-uniformed Democrats like former Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who struggling to take him down.

McNaughton described the scene on his YouTube channel this way:

“Today’s politics are rough. You have to push hard for everything you get. The field is muddy and the players can get dirty. But we have a president that has risen above the rest.”

Credit Pat Bagley / Salt Lake Tribune
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Salt Lake Tribune

Over the weekend Salt Lake Tribune cartoonist Pat Bagley offered his spin on the Trump painting.

McNaughton, a graduate of Brigham Young University, is known to many Latter-day Saints for his paintings of Jesus Christ.

In an email to KUER McNaughton described his reasons for shifting to more political work.

“I mix my views of God and patriotism all the time,” McNaughton wrote. “The Founders did that and even the founder of the LDS church [Joseph Smith] ran for President before he was killed.”

McNaughton said some of his fans wish he’d stay out of politics but he doesn’t see any distinction. Or put another way, he said the separation of church and state does not apply to his paintings.

Lee Hale began listening to KUER while he was teaching English at a Middle School in West Jordan (his one hour commute made for plenty of listening time). Inspired by what he heard he applied for the Kroc Fellowship at NPR headquarters in DC and to his surprise, he got it. Since then he has reported on topics ranging from TSA PreCheck to micro apartments in overcrowded cities to the various ways zoo animals stay cool in the summer heat. But, his primary focus has always been education and he returns to Utah to cover the same schools he was teaching in not long ago. Lee is a graduate of Brigham Young University and is also fascinated with the way religion intersects with the culture and communities of the Beehive State. He hopes to tell stories that accurately reflect the beliefs that Utahns hold dear.
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