MAGA influencer Benny Johnson on Tuesday once again sucked up to President Donald Trump, this time for moving the official portrait of former President Barack Obama from a prominent spot in the White House to a less visible place at the top of the Grand Staircase.
The 38-year-old YouTuber, who has previously referred to the MAGA leader as “daddy,” showcased the new location Tuesday in a selfie video critics are calling “cringe as fuck” and “embarrassing.”
Johnson posted a video on X with the following text: “Y’all have to see what Trump has done with the Obama portrait at the White House.”
Looking straight at the camera, he says in the video, “Funniest thing what Trump has done with the Barack Obama portrait, check this out.”
Johnson then flipped to the back camera and panned around the Grand Foyer, where the Obama portrait was prominently displayed until last year, and tracked up the staircase to show off its new location — seemingly hidden away from thousands of daily White House visitors.
Critics have since called the influencer out for basking in “high school drama” and slammed him as “a little suck up” for cheering the portrait’s removal, with one user noting that Trump is 79 years old but “acting like a petulant child” for continuing to taunt Obama.
“Grow the fuck up,” they concluded.
Johnson was attending St. Patrick’s Day festivities at the White House with his wife, chronicling the journey with his “Irish girl” in a separate video, and posting a third video showing them eating from an “Irish spread” and toasting each other with glasses of Guinness beer.
Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
Johnson, who was fired from BuzzFeed in 2014 after a review of his work at the outlet identified at least 40 instances of plagiarism, agreed last year with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and argued the U.S. should not interfere in the affairs of foreign countries.
Trump has also replaced former President Joe Biden’s portrait with a photo of an autopen, a dig at his predecessor’s reported use of the technology while in office, and ordered a series of plaques insulting former presidents to line the walls.
Johnson is now landing some criticism of his own for mocking Obama.
