Donald and Melania Trump make quiet debut in National Portrait Gallery

Former United States first couple Donald and Melania Trump have been quietly inducted into the National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C.

According to a report in Mail Online, portraits of the couple were spotted when the museum, which was closed since last year due to the pandemic restrictions, reopened on Friday. The former US POTUS has been given a place in the presidential portraits exhibit, while his wife's portrait was added to the gallery on first ladies.

The portrait of Donald Trump shows him behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. The picture was taken by Pari Dukovic for Time magazine in June 2019, the day before the then president announced that he was running for re-election in 2020. The museum will likely replace the photograph with a formal portrait in the next year.

For now, the placeholder photograph has been hung on the opposite side of a freestanding wall that features his predecessor Barack Obama's famous 'Hope' poster. The portrait on his right is of Richard Nixon, a Republican who had quit from the Oval office amid the Watergate scandal and looming impeachment.

A portrait of late Congressman and Civil Rights icon John Lewis, another of Trump's rivals who believed the last POTUS was not a "legitimate" US leader, is also across the wall from his picture. The placement has received criticism from some who believe Trump's portrait should not have been near John Lewis's. The late activist had skipped Trump's inauguration as the President in 2016, which Trump recalled upon the former's death in July last year.

"He didn't come to my inauguration," the then-president said at the time of the death of the Georgia representative.

The caption on Trump's portrait notes that he was elected into power "after tapping into populist American sentiment" as he "put forth an 'America First' agenda." It also speaks of his two impeachments and how the coronavirus pandemic "became a key issue during his re-election campaign."

Meanwhile, a close-up portrait of Melania Trump has been added to the portraits of first ladies. The portrait shows the former FLOTUS dressed in black with her arms crossed and a serious look on her face.

The former first couples are traditionally in attendance at the unveiling of their portraits, which couldn't happen in Trumps' case as their pictures were put up amid coronavirus rectrictions. However, Smithsonian Institution spokesperson Brendan Kelly clarified to Yahoo News that their current portraits are placeholders and traditional portraits with oil paint on canvas is "currently moving forward."

"We approached the president and Mrs. Trump after the 2020 election and are currently in conversations with them," he added.