Given that this was often a fake story during Trump’s first term, you’d think people would tread a little more carefully this time.
Listeners have asked me to investigate the South Bend VA clinic’s alleged refusal to hang President Trump’s picture. A couple of poorly sourced posts have further spread the rumor online. It appears to be fake news.
Indiana 2nd District Congressman Rudy Yakim’s office reached out to the VA clinic in South Bend to inquire about the rumors.
Griffin Nate is the District Director for Congressman Rudy Yakym (IN-02). He emailed Jon Beidelschies, Executive Director
VA Northern Indiana.
Jon,
Wanted to reach out and get some clarity on a couple of things – we have received reports that President Trump and Vice President Vance’s photos have not been put on display yet at the JWC. Additionally, there are reports that the JWC is not in compliance with the President’s directive on removal of DEI symbols and flags.
Please advise on both of these items.
Thank you!
Griffin
Jon Beidelschies responded about four hours later:
Hi Griffin –
Re: POTUS and SecVA photos – official portraits are printed and provided to VA by GPO and are expected to ship later this month. We do not have authority to print and hang photos independently of GPO official portraits. No sites of care in NIHCS have POTUS or SecVA photos up at this time for this reason, this is not a JWC issue. Note that generally official photos will be of POTUS and SecVA, and generally do not include VPOTUS absent a change to traditional practice.
Re: Flag guidance – to the best of my knowledge, we are compliant with all VA flag directives at all sites of care. My AD will be rounding at JWC Monday to verify.
Happy to provide a formal response to the member if needed. Let me know if you have any additional questions. Hope you have a nice weekend.
Thanks
Jon
The exchange happened on the 15th of March.
The Government Publishing Office (GPO) produces the official photographs of the President and Vice President. These are then distributed to over 1,600 federal offices.
During President Trump’s first term, there were issues with getting his official photo hung in several federal offices. This was largely due to the GPO waiting for the official photos to be taken of Trump and Pence. The White House asserted that ‘a photo’ was provided to all federal offices who requested one as the story went mainstream. There were several fake news stories spread online about that story during President Trump’s first term.
For reference, it took around 3 months for President Obama’s photo to be hung. It took around 5 months for President Clinton’s to be hung. President Trump has been in office for just over 2 months.
It took a presidential directive in March 2017 for VA clinics to be able to just print an image of Trump from the internet to display on their walls since the GPO didn’t have an official photo to send them.
The South Bend VA clinic is not refusing to hang President Trump’s picture.