This painting of Trump 'Crossing the Swamp' has a lot going on

Move over, "American Gothic." A new national treasure is about to hit an art gallery, or possibly a flea market, near you.

From certainly not the same people who brought you "Washington Crossing the Delaware," meet "Crossing the Swamp." It's the newest painting from Jon McNaughton, and it depicts President Trump's harrowing quest to glide across the D.C. swamp.

You may know McNaughton as the artist of "Expose the Truth," which features Trump grabbing Special Counsel Robert Mueller by the tie and peering at his nose through a magnifying glass. Or perhaps you've seen McNaughton's "The Forgotten Man," in which James Madison gapes at former President Barack Obama for stepping on the Constitution. Sean Hannity has that one hanging in his home.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In this latest addition to the McNaughton collection, Trump — who is "looking trim," ProPublica's Jessica Huseman notes — holds a lamp above his closest companions. That includes Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who isn't quite visible but is nevertheless stuck in this boat. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders dunks an oar into the marsh, which appears relatively undrained, seeing as it is deep enough to carry a 12-person canoe. The depicted event can be traced to sometime in past four months, as National Security Adviser John Bolton is aboard and poised to strike down any Washington insider.

But this is just one scholar's interpretation. Watch the artist himself compare Trump's trek across the "murky waters of the deep state" to the time Washington apparently "crossed Valley Forge" in this revelatory and dramatic video. Kathryn Krawczyk