To improve the performance of our website, show the most relevant news products and targeted advertising, we collect technical impersonal information about you, including through the tools of our partners. You can find a detailed description of how we use your data in our Privacy Policy. For a detailed description of the technologies, please see the Cookie and Automatic Logging Policy. By clicking on the "Accept & Close" button, you provide your explicit consent to the processing of your data to achieve the above goal. You can withdraw your consent using the method specified in the Privacy Policy.<doc-sep>Mr. Trump, who loves tough guys, brought Churchill front and center after assuming the presidency. Last year, he restored to the Oval Office a bust of the prime minister that had been moved during the Obama administration. And the grimace Mr. Trump has used in official portraits and on the world stage? That, too, was born of an effort to look like Churchill. The real Churchill, sometimes to his chagrin, was painted to look much like a joyless bulldog, with squinted eyes and a protruding lower lip. Last winter, as Mr. Trump was adjusting to his presidency, he was host to a screening of “Darkest Hour” at the White House. The film, which lionizes Churchill’s extraordinary struggle to see Britain through a devastating war and face down one of history’s most destructive monsters, struck a chord with the president. Mr. Trump has said he usually has trouble sitting through movies, and will get up and leave if he is uninterested. “Darkest Hour” stuck with the president as he made plans to visit Britain. In a phone call last winter, he told Mrs. May that she could become this generation’s Churchill, a British official said on Thursday. The official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the conversation and spoke on the condition of anonymity, was confirming a detail first reported by The Telegraph. An official involved in the planning for the visit said there was even discussion of having the president visit the underground London bunker used by Mr. Churchill as a war room during World War II. Those plans were eventually cut out of the final agenda. Mr. Trump is not the only Republican who admires Churchill. John Boehner, the former House speaker, and his successor, Paul D. Ryan, have held parties honoring Churchill at the Capitol. Other conservative figures like Jerry Falwell Jr., Michael Savage and Mike Huckabee have compared Mr. Trump to Churchill.<doc-sep>Before meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister May Friday, President Trump took a seat in Winston Churchill’s chair at Chequers. Chequers is the official country home of the Prime Minister. Press secretary Sarah Sanders took a photo of Trump sitting gingerly in the chair. . @POTUS sits in Winston Churchill’s chair as a guest of Prime Minister May at Chequers. pic.twitter.com/Wv2nrLMnQP — Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) July 13, 2018 As is the case with many seemingly harmless things the President does, however, the photo hit a nerve on the left. Twitter users called it the “top five worst photos I’ve ever seen” and called Trump a Nazi. This is easily one of the top five worst photos I’ve ever seen https://t.co/tob9UpTyRl — Nicholas Hautman (@nickhautman) July 13, 2018 From one racist piece of shit to something even worse. https://t.co/k2NvDy0m4f — feck off home, trump (@MikeDiver) July 13, 2018 I hope the ghost of Winston Churchill rips Donald Trump’s nazi cock off. https://t.co/7sRz9I4Etc — Hilary Mitchell (@Hilary_W) July 13, 2018 Churchill was a good man. Trump, not so much. https://t.co/8RNzLAvMDq — Euan Rellie (@euanrellie) July 13, 2018 “It would be a measureless disaster if Russian barbarism overlaid the culture and independence of the ancient States of Europe.” –– Winston Churchill https://t.co/InTcYmXr9j — John Haltiwanger (@jchaltiwanger) July 13, 2018 Awfully big chair for such a small man. https://t.co/gLxi0WtsIW — Fernando Espuelas (@EspuelasVox) July 13, 2018 The Darkest Hour https://t.co/cegM4ju8R7 — Luke Zaleski (@ZaleskiLuke) July 13, 2018 CORRECTION: An earlier version of this piece incorrectly states that Chequers was the home of Winston Churchill. It is the official country home of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.<doc-sep>
British tabloid the Daily Mirror used its front page on Saturday to hit President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE for sitting in former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s chair. “How dare you,” the headline on the Mirror’s front page reads over an image of Trump striking a pose in the chair. “You insult our country, attack our [National Health Service], embarrass our Queen, undermine our ‘special relationship,’ humiliate our [prime minister]…and then smugly pose in Winston Churchill’s armchair,” the front page states. ADVERTISEMENT The Mirror also published a report quoting British Labour leaders criticizing the image of Trump sitting in Churchill’s armchair, which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted out on Thursday. .@POTUS sits in Winston Churchill’s chair as a guest of Prime Minister May at Chequers. pic.twitter.com/Wv2nrLMnQP — Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) July 13, 2018 Trump has publicly stated his admiration for Churchill: He had a bust of Churchill reinstalled in the Oval Office on his first day in office and hosted a screening of “Darkest Hour,” which depicts Churchill’s early days in office, at the White House last year. The praise hasn't been fully reciprocated by Churchill's family. The late leader's grandson called Trump a "daft twerp" last year for connecting the United Kingdom's rise in crime to “radical Islamic terror.” Trump is currently in the U.K. He spent one night in London, where he faced widespread protests, before departing for his luxury golf resort in Scotland on Friday night.