Here is the letter I sent Trump on Janurary 22, 2017 that in in the Presidential archives.
John Presco
The Statue of Liberty is seen from the Staten Island Ferry, Sept. 9, 2024, in New York. | Pamela Smith/AP
By Danny Nguyen
03/17/2025 03:33 PM EDT
The Trump administration will not entertain a French politician’s request to return the Statue of Liberty to France.
“Absolutely not. My advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a press briefing Monday, likely referencing an American-French allyship during World War II that snuffed out Nazi Germany. “They should be grateful.”
The President’s Art Buddy?
Posted on January 22, 2017 by Royal Rosamond Press
President Barack Obama shows Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom a bust of Sir Winston Churchill in the private residence of the White House, July 20, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
To: The President of the United States of America
From: Jon Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press
Dear Mr. President
Last night I began to compose a sarcastic letter to you in regards to the bust of Winston Churchill by the Bohemian Sculptor, Jacob Epstein. This morning I awoke with a change of heart when I finally heard the First Ladies plea to the world;
“For God’s sake, will someone be my husband’s best friend. I can’t be his best friend. I am a mother with a son to raise!”
I had an epiphany! You never had a best friend. I asked myself – Why? I deduced your inner mirror is on the blink. You may be incapable of introspection. This may be the result of being the richest kid on the block – and New York. However, it is coming out you do not like to read. How about contemplate a work of art? The world is now very curious as to where you gather your opinions. A best friend is often the source for most people. Best friends go off to a special place where they are beautiful and honest mirrors to one another. A best friend has permission to be critical with care, and tell you the truth, with love. To allow another human being to make up who you are, is the greatest experience one can own, especially when you are both artists. Did you know Winston Church is an artist. He loves the time he takes – to create! His empty canvases are telling! They are mirrors on the wall that bid us to look deeper, and behold the truth.
Here’s your letter I was composing in my mind before I went to bed….
Dear Mr. President;
Like millions of Americans, I hate your guts because you are so stupid! You know nothing about art, and, are unteachable. For this reason I highly suggest I be your Artist In Residence so I can protect the valuable works of art that belong to the American People, who with dignity and respect for the Office, let you borrow these works, for your edification and contemplation so that you will know what a Great Nation We are!
If you can put up an old army cot down in the basement next to the boiler, with kerosene lantern, I would know bliss. For when I heard you and your Generals yakking it up in the Oval Office, I would strap on my hunchback, go upstairs, and as your Brass mocks me, I will cover our works of art in plastic, so you pussy-grabbing freaks wont spill your booze all over our National Treasures – along with your precious Bodily Fluids.”
When I awoke, I was in a conciliatory mood, and a patriotic one. I owe it to my President, and my Fellow Americans to be serious – and try to make a difference in your life. I was going to bid you to contemplate this bust of Churchill, for it is a window into the soul of the British Endeavor, that was swayed by the rule of the most amazing Kings and Queens that ever walked the earth. Winston is closely related to Princess Diana Spencer, whose son will sit on the throne of England. King Henry Fitzempress Plantagenet is said to have built a labyrinth at Woodstock where he kept his paramour, Fair Rosamond, safe from his wife, Queen Eleanore. Henry was the most educated man in the world. He claimed he descends from the Kings of Troy, where Helen was taken after she was captured by Paris. Consider the beautiful women you have captured.
Henry’s grandfather had a zoo, and came close to ruling all of the western world, when his heir went down in the White Ship disaster. His daughter, Empress Matilda, made powerful moves on the Chessboard of the World, and thus the Plantagenet Dynasty was born. The War of the Roses stems from these Unions, the blood ties, that born real stories, including ‘The Game of Thrones’. Study Matilda and know that you are poised to replicate her vision. It is blatantly obvious you do not have a clue of how much power you own – that would instantly humble most leaders. Humility – is wasted on you! You are consuming all the humility of the world. You need to stop – and THINK!
I owned a vision Mr. President, of you tugging on a string that leads to my humble Bohemian abode down in your basement, and, I arise. A hot cup of coffee awaits us as we sit before the bust of Churchill and contemplate the meaning of – it all! I would be your Art Buddy, and not your teacher. Then, I beheld the sad, and dangerous truth.
On further investigation, I discovered you have rekindled the Iconoclastic Wars that my Rosemondt ancestors found themselves in the middle of. To my horror, I discovered you use a work of art to bludgeon President Obama with. You use Art to go to War. You use the word “enemy” on U.S. Citizens. If Churchill was alive, he would come across ‘The Pond’ and kick your ass: for Britain never had a better friend then the U.S.A when it came to defeating the Real Enemy. You sully the word! You grab the pussy of beautiful women, but, it is clear you don’t know what to do with it. You grab all the power one can own, and you don’t know what to do with it. I suspect Beauty itself is your mortal enemy. Mr. President, you are a very ugly man!
I must now declare you ‘The Enemy of Art’. You are in the company of Evil Men. Not since the defeat of Hitler, by the friends, Winston Churchill, and F.D.R, has there been one who dare take that Dictator’s place. You mock these great men. They hated the SS Gestapo, who stole some of the greatest art made in the west. You need to look in the mirror I hold up to you, and behold the Monster. You need to look at the artist who rendered that bust – and repent! Consider Henry and Beckett.
As it is now, you are irredeemable. You are damaged goods. You and Spicer made it very clear that you see ‘The American People’ as OBJECTS – your objects! Human beings are not objects. They can be called SUBJECTS if our land was a Kingdom. Most Presidents use the title ‘My Fellow Americans’. Since you took office, you have not addressed US with the respect WE ARE ALL DUE!
As things are now, there is no hope for you. To say this is to say there is no hope for US. You have no right to remove Hope from this Freedom Land, or, play devious games with works of art, as it they were your chess pieces. I will blog on our special relationship once a week. Whether you like it or not, I am your ‘Art Buddy’.
Because you are so stupid, and know very little, I suspect you already have a ‘Art Buddy’. Care to tell the American People who, he, or she – is? Hitler was an artist. When he tried to get into the Berlin Academy, a instructor noticed something disturbing in his cityscapes. They were devoid of people. Did Hitler find all the German People – unworthy?
Sincerely
Jon Presco
by George Charles Beresford,photograph,1924
People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called iconoclasts, a term that has come to be applied figuratively to any individual who challenges “cherished beliefs or venerated institutions on the grounds that they are erroneous or pernicious”.[1] Conversely, one who reveres or venerates religious images is called (by iconoclasts) an iconolater; in a Byzantine context, such a person is called an iconodule or iconophile.
Iconoclasm may be carried out by people of a different religion, but is often the result of sectarian disputes between factions of the same religion. In Christianity, iconoclasm has generally been motivated by people who adopt a literal interpretation of the Ten Commandments, which forbid the making and worshipping of “graven images or any likeness of anything”.[2] The Church Fathers identified Jews and Judaism with heresy. They saw deviations from orthodox Christianity and opposition to the veneration of images as heresies that were essentially “Jewish in spirit”.[3] The degree of iconoclasm among Christian branches greatly varies. Islam, in general, tends to be more iconoclastic than Christianity,[4] with Sunni Islam being more iconoclastic than Shia Islam.
Trump Stiffs Andy – With Liz
Posted on January 28, 2017 by Royal Rosamond Press
Trump stiffed Andy Warhol who did several famous images of my kin, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor. We share the same great grandfather, James Rosamond, who was the brother of Captain Samuel Rosamond, the Patriot. Liz would be happy to have known about her all American family who immigrated from Ireland. She did not know her cousin was the famous artist, Christine Rosamond Benton, who married into the Benton family of American artists. This history and genealogy was compiled by Jimmy (James) Rosamond, and myself after Christine and Liz, died. Jimmy descends from James.
My late father and Trump are like twins. Vic hated art, but became a player and partner of Christine, as did Larry Chazen, a CEO of Noble Oil. Rick Perry is on the board of the pipe company that is fighting the Sioux. Chazen is a partner of the Getty oil family who own one of the largest art collections in the world. Trump owns no original art, and defunded the National Endowment of the Arts. Not since the Medicis and Habsburgs, have we seen such a cluster.
Warhol was fascinated with the rich, powerful, and famous. My family tie to Trump is thru art. My credibility and stock – is thru the roof, thanks to Trump becoming President. This blog is a historic prophecy, and Bohemian archive. I prepared the way for the coming of Trump – the real Mad Man! If he had not been elected, then my family and ex-friends could go back to ignoring me. This an Cultural Reboot. Protestors are at our airports fighting for deportees and refugees. Christine’s place in the rea art world, has been secured. This is what she wanted. She headed a Women’s Movement in the 70s.
Here is Christine Rosamond’s ‘Denim and Silk’. She looks like Elfin Muse.
Trump and the extreme-right are going to do even more crazy and dangerous things. They are very destructive. Someday, this blog will be the stepping stones for the – return to sanity! It will be a famous art lesson for future generations who are making history in the streets! A new pertinence is being constructed before our eyes!
Trump is the No.1 enemy of art, and just about everything else. If he met Julia Childes, he would scarf down her food at the studio, then barf it out in the parking lot, making sure that was caught on film. In the world according to Trump, most people are con-artists, fakes, crooked ‘The Enemy’. What he really thinks about evangelicals, is waiting in the wings. Trump is ‘The Lawnmower Man’. For this reason, I and may others, may not have anything to say because he is altering reality at an incredible rate. We find little time to do things that used to amuse us. Why go to a movie, when you got a marathon thriller on T.V. – for free! Trump is a great teacher! All the lessons I have been blogging, now make sense in every blatant action he takes. He is Trump College. Learn how to be a Bohemian by opposing him at every turn. Fight fire, with fire!
“Hell no! We won’t go!”
“I’ve always felt that a lot of modern art is a con, and that the most successful painters are often better salesmen and promoters than they are artists.”
This is to say, artists are like Trump, rather then like other artists. Trump is the artist’s, artist. There can only be one winner – and one Trump! He is not going to let anyone -play! He owns all the toys. Trump is…….The Supreme Creator! He only pretended he was going to let his daughter in, let her steer the ship of state. Ivanka has a minor collection of New York Artists. I will be contacting her.
Rosamond was more than a Popular Artist. Her images of Beautiful Liberated Women, were Protest Posters that millions of women hung on the walls of their abodes. My heart stood still as I beheld my new muses long eyelashes. Here is Simone Rosamond. She told me she got them from her mother.
The Rose of the World is our Lady Liberty that stands in New York Harbor holding up a light for the whole world to see these words, her words……..The Mother of Exiles!
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Jon Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press
Copyright 2017
Besides being a Warhol muse, Elizabeth Taylor was the daughter of art dealer Francis Taylor, whose Beverly Hills Hotel gallery catered to old-time Hollywood collectors like Greta Garbo, Vincent Price, and James Mason. Liz herself became a substantial collector, owning works by Cézanne, van Gogh, Picasso, and Matisse. Francis launched his daughter’s collecting with a Frans Hals as a wedding gift for her first marriage (to Nicky Hilton). During Liz’s short marriage to Mike Todd (1957-8), the couple bought paintings by Degas, Vuillard, and Utrillo from Aly Khan for $71,428. “They’ll think I’m crazy when they hear about this in Hollywood,” Todd said. “Paying that much for pictures that don’t even move.”
http://www.warholstars.org/1963.html
“There’s a certain amount of bravado in what I do these days, and part of that bravado is to make it look easy. That’s why I’ve often referred to business as being an art. I’ve always liked Andy Warhol’s statement that, ‘making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.’ I agree.” (Think Like a Champion, 57)
On April 24, 1981, Trump visited Warhol’s studio, known as “The Factory,” after a mutual colleague set up a business meeting. In his posthumous “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” the late artist wrote:
“He told Donald Trump that I should do a portrait of (Trump Tower) that would hang over the entrance to the residential part. …
“Donald Trump is really good-looking. … It was so strange, these people are so rich. They talked about buying a building yesterday for $500 million or something.”
Warhol notes that Trump’s party “didn’t have drinks,” and:
“He’s (Trump’s) a butch guy. Nothing was settled, but I’m going to do some paintings, anyway, and show them to them.”
Warhol ended up painting eight portraits, “in black and grey and silver which I thought would be so chic for the lobby. But it was a mistake to do so many, I think it confused them.”
“Self Portrait” by Andy Warhol. Image Credit: Timothy A. Clary/Getty Images
Trump, Warhol wrote:
“Was very upset that it wasn’t color-coordinated. … They’re going to come down with swatches of material so I can do the paintings to match the pinks and oranges. I think Trump’s sort of cheap, though, I get that feeling.”
But Trump never purchased Warhol’s portraits and in his 1987 book “The Art of the Deal,” he may have alluded to why:
“I’ve always felt that a lot of modern art is a con, and that the most successful painters are often better salesmen and promoters than they are artists.”
Warhol echoed that in a way, as the artist liked to say, “Art is what you can get away with.” But Trump is as much an expert at self-branding as Warhol was. He commanded $2 billion worth of free media attention during the Republican primary.
Image Credit: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images
Warhol nursed Trump’s slight of never purchasing his paintings for years. In January 1984, he showed up for a 12 noon meeting at Trump Tower two hours late, explaining, “this is because I still hate the Trumps.”
And driving past a Trump-owned skyscraper prompted this diary entry from May 1984:
“And I just hate the Trumps because they never bought my Trump Tower portraits. And I also hate them because the cabs on the upper level of their ugly Hyatt Hotel just back up traffic so badly around Grand Central now and it takes me so long to get home.”
But, in the same way, Trump compliments or calls out individual reporters covering his campaign, he flatters Warhol in two of his books, as The Andy Warhol Museum’s blog notes.
Warhol’s remark, “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art,” comes from the 1975 book ”THE Philosophy of Andy Warhol.”
The line appears in the introduction to Trump’s “Think Like a Billionaire” and is referenced multiple times in “Think Like a Champion”:
“There’s a certain amount of bravado in what I do these days, and part of that bravado is to make it look easy. That’s why I’ve often referred to business as being an art.
“I’ve always liked Andy Warhol’s statement that, ‘making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.’ I agree.”
But politics is an art, as well, and Donald Trump is the middle of forging the future of it. His business, his reputation, and the future of the country rest on what he creates or, indeed, fails to.
Does the Internet need another blog post about Donald Trump? Probably not. But Andy Warhol always followed the headlines and depicted the trending topics of the time in his artwork. Warhol would take a famous face from newspapers and magazine covers that you were about to get sick of, and reproduce it dozens—if not hundreds—of times on his silkscreened canvases. So at The Warhol it seems fitting to offer insight on The Donald, a man who has been rich and famous since Warhol’s time.
Andy Warhol met Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana, on multiple occasions. The first mention of Trump in The Andy Warhol Diaries is from February 22, 1981, when they attended the birthday party of infamous McCarthy-era attorney Roy Cohn. Two months later, on April 24, 1981, Trump visited Warhol’s Factory. They had a business meeting arranged by Marc Balet, the art director of Interview magazine for eleven years. Thus, the saga begins:
“Had to meet Donald Trump at the office. Marc Balet had set up this meeting. I keep forgetting that Marc gave up architecture to become an art director, but he still builds models at home, he told me. He’s designing a catalogue for all the stores in the atrium at the Trump Tower and he told Donald Trump that I should do a portrait of the building that would hang over the entrance to the residential part. […] It was so strange, these people are so rich. They talked about buying a building yesterday for $500 million or something. […] He’s a butch guy. Nothing was settled, but I’m going to do some paintings anyway, and show them to them.” (The Andy Warhol Diaries, 375–376)
A few weeks after that, Warhol and his assistant Christopher Makos met with Balet at Trump Tower, which was still under construction. Makos photographed the architectural models of the building; his photos were used as the source images for Warhol’s portrait of the tower. Warhol also created line drawings from tracing the photographs and burned them onto separate silkscreens. The result was a beautiful series of multilayered paintings in black, silver, and gold; some with a sprinkling of Warhol’s glittering diamond dust. Although the commission had not been officially settled, as the Trumps had not paid for any work, Warhol felt confident:
“Monday, June 1st, 1981
Marc’s arranged it so that the catalogue cover he’s designing will be my painting and then the Trumps would wind up with this painting of their building. It’s a great idea, isn’t it?” (The Andy Warhol Diaries, 386)
When the Trumps returned to the Factory on August 5, the deal didn’t go as expected:
“The Trumps came down. […] I showed them the paintings of the Trump Tower that I’d done. I don’t know why I did so many, I did eight. In black and grey and silver which I thought would be so chic for the lobby. But it was a mistake to do so many, I think it confused them. Mr. Trump was very upset that it wasn’t color-coordinated. They have Angelo Donghia doing the decorating so they’re going to come down with swatches of material so I can do the paintings to match the pinks and oranges. I think Trump’s sort of cheap, though, I get that feeling. And Marc Balet who set up the whole thing was sort of shocked. But maybe Mrs. Trump will think about a portrait because I let them see the portraits of Lynn Wyatt behind the building paintings, so maybe they’ll get the idea….” (The Andy Warhol Diaries, 398)
Andy Warhol, Trump Tower, 1981, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Warhol never did satisfy the Trumps. After this failed commission, Warhol expressed seeming resentment of the Trumps in his diaries for the next few years. The next Trump-related diary entry is from another birthday party for Roy Cohn on February 26, 1983:
“[…] And Ivana Trump was there and she came over and when she saw me she was embarrassed and she said, “Oh, whatever happened to those pictures?” and I had this speech in my mind of telling her off, and I was undecided whether to let her have it or not, and she was trying to get away and she did….” (The Andy Warhol Diaries, 487–488)
On November 30, 1983, Trump Tower opened to the public. The mixed-use skyscraper—comprised of apartments, offices, an atrium, and stores on the ground levels—has hosted an eclectic variety of events over the years. When Warhol was invited to judge cheerleading tryouts at Trump Tower on January 15, 1984, he complied:
“It was the first tryout, and I was supposed to be there at 12:00 but I took my time and went to church and finally moseyed over there around 2:00. This is because I still hate the Trumps because they never bought the paintings I did of the Trump Tower.” (The Andy Warhol Diaries, 549)
To make room for Trump Tower, a location of great significance in Warhol’s Pop art exhibition history—and also his pre-Pop work—had to be torn down: the Bonwit Teller Department Store. Warhol did many of the store’s huge window displays from the 1950s up to 1968. The most significant of these was that of April 1961, which included his earliest Pop paintings, reproducing popular culture images such as comics, a crossword, and advertisements.
On one occasion, driving by another Trump-owned skyscraper aroused this diary entry from May 2, 1984:
“And I just hate the Trumps because they never bought my Trump Tower portraits. And I also hate them because the cabs on the upper level of their ugly Hyatt Hotel just back up traffic so badly around Grand Central now and it takes me so long to get home.” (The Andy Warhol Diaries, 571)
Interestingly, Donald Trump has not publicly expressed any ill will toward Warhol. In fact he has quoted Warhol in two of his books. It’s actually the same quote; the line “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” from Warhol’s 1975 book, THE Philosophy of Andy Warhol, appears in the introduction to Trump’s Think Like a Billionaire and is referenced three separate times in his Think Like a Champion:
“There’s a certain amount of bravado in what I do these days, and part of that bravado is to make it look easy. That’s why I’ve often referred to business as being an art. I’ve always liked Andy Warhol’s statement that, ‘making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.’ I agree.” (Think Like a Champion, 57)
“We are all businessmen and women, whether you see it that way yet or not. If you like art and can’t make money at it, you eventually realize that everything is business, even your art. That’s why I like Warhol’s statement about good business being the best art. It’s a fact. That’s also another reason I see my business as an art and so I work at it passionately.” (Think Like a Champion, 86)
Perhaps Warhol would have written differently about Trump if the painting commission had worked out. Two of the Trump Tower portraits are now in The Warhol’s permanent collection. The rest of the paintings and drawings are scattered in galleries across the globe. Will Trump’s presidential campaign result in a new level of importance for these paintings?
Rosamond Press 
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