Donald Trump made waves (of course) on New Year’s Eve when he auctioned off a freshly painted portrait of Jesus Christ for $2.75m. The US President hosted a gala ringing in the new year at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, featuring a charity auction attended by luminaries such as the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a bid to raise cash for a local children’s hospital, Trump asked the artist Vanessa Horabuena to paint a picture live in front of the assembled revellers. Horabuena tackled the large black canvas with a paintbrush as a band launched into a slow rendition of Hallelujah, reports The Guardian. “Draw something really special. I don’t know what it is, but draw something really special,” he said (the result was the rather makeshift Christ which sold to an unnamed couple).
“To me, she’s one of the greatest…. She can paint, slowly, a beautiful portrait for the White House, or she can paint the most incredible painting in literally 10 minutes,” he said in a video of the event broadcast on Newsmax. Trump added that his new year’s resolution was a wish for “peace on Earth” (welcome to 2026).