A screenshot from Fox News’ “The Five” on November 6, 2023, showing Kayleigh McEnany alongside a drawing of Donald Trump by courtroom artist Elizabeth Williams.
Fox News/Archive.org
Kayleigh McEnany poked fun at a courtroom sketch of Trump on “The Five” on Monday.The artist, Elizabeth Williams, said that “dumping on court artists” is becoming more and more common.Williams has drawn Trump in court since the 1980s, back when “no one knew or really cared about” him.
A courtroom sketch artist has responded to a Fox News commentator who called her drawings of Donald Trump a “travesty.”
Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany joined Fox News’ panel show The Five on Monday to discuss Trump’s massive $250 million civil fraud trial.
Asked what advice she would have for the former president, she said: “I would advise him to ask for a better sketch artist, because I think that does not look like my former boss.”
Although other artists’ work had been shown in the segment, an image by courtroom sketch artist Elizabeth Williams was displayed on screen at the time.
Claiming that New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case against Trump is a “travesty of justice,” she added that “that sketch is a travesty too, it looks nothing like Trump.”
Host Dana Perino chimed in to say “I think it looks pretty good!,” but cohost Greg Gutfeld poked fun, saying that a figure behind Trump looked like comedian Louis CK.
The jabs are nothing new for Williams, who is one of several artists covering the trial.
“This dumping on court artists has now become part of our business,” she told Insider, adding: “I am getting used to it.”
Williams has been a courtroom artist for decades, and recapped her coverage of Trump going back to the 1980s.
“When I drew him in 1986 during the USFL/NFL trial, no one knew or really cared about Donald Trump,” she said, adding: “Now that he was president and a leader of a huge political movement, it’s a whole different story.”
Williams said that when she drew him in Miami “that artwork was criticized because it made him look too young.”
“When I drew him on the stand for the sanctions hearing, that drawing ended up on SNL,” she said. “Now this.”
After Williams portrayed Trump’s first appearance on the witness stand last week, the image ended up as part of an SNL joke — although to her relief Trump, and not the artist, was the butt of the joke.
Colin Jost, showcasing her drawing, referred to Trump as a “former president and current courtroom sketch model.”
A screenshot from SNL “Weekend Update” from October 31, 2023
SNL/YouTube
Jost went on to quip: “It’s fun that nobody is 100% sure which trial this sketch is from.”
Last week, Donald Trump Jr, the former president’s eldest son, asked a different courtroom artist to make him appear “sexy” in her illustration, after he finished testifying about his knowledge of his family company’s finances.
Williams is not the only outside party to draw attacks from Team Trump during the trial.
On Thursday, Judge Arthur Engoron lashed out at one of Trump’s lawyers after repeated snipes at his law clerk, in remarks the judge found potentially “misogynist,” as Insider’s Laura Italiano reported.