A painting of Donald Trump hanging with other presidential portraits at the Colorado state Capitol will be taken down after the US president claimed that it was “purposefully distorted”, according to a letter.

House Democrats said in a statement that the oil painting would be taken down at the request of Republican leaders in the Legislature. Colorado Republicans raised more than $10,000 through a GoFundMe account to commission the oil painting, which was unveiled in 2019.

Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Republican, said he requested for Trump’s portrait to be taken down and replaced by one “that depicts his contemporary likeness”. “If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol, that’s up to them,” the Democrats said.

The portrait was installed alongside other paintings of US presidents. Before the installation, a prankster placed a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin near the spot intended for Trump.

Initially, people objected to artist Sarah Boardman’s depiction of Trump as “nonconfrontational” and “thoughtful” in the portrait, according to an interview with Colorado Times Recorder from the time. But in a Sunday night post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he would prefer no picture at all over the one that hangs in the Colorado Capitol. The Republican lauded a nearby portrait of former President Barack Obama, also by Boardman, saying “he looks wonderful”.

“Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the state Capitol, put up by the governor, along with all other presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,” Trump wrote. The portraits are not the purview of the Colorado governor’s office but the Colorado Building Advisory Committee. The ones up to and including former president Jimmy Carter were donated as a collection. The others were donated by political parties or, more recently, paid for by outside fundraising.

The Legislature’s executive committee, made up of both Democratic and Republican leadership, signed a letter directing the removal of Trump’s portrait.