Prankster puts Putin's portrait in Trump's place at Colorado Capitol
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}U.S. Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Obama and…Putin?
On Thursday, an unidentified prankster placed a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin on an easel below a blank space on a wall in the Colorado Capitol where presidential portraits are hung.
The Russian leader’s likeness was removed by a tour guide, but not before state Sen. Steve Fenberg, a Democrat, tweeted a photograph of the portrait.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The presidential photographs cost around $10,000 and are paid for with donations.
Jay Seller, the head of the group that collects the funds, told local media that it took about four months to collect the money for the portraits of former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
Trump and Putin held a historic summit almost two weeks ago in Helsinki in which they reportedly discussed a range of issues, including nuclear proliferation, the war in Syria and Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trump has been shadowed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russian officials — a probe that the president has repeatedly deemed a “witch hunt.”
Although Trump expressed a willingness to meet with Putin at the White House this fall, he later said any summit with the Russian president in the U.S. would not happen until 2019.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.