The artist whose work Donald Trump really wasn’t a fan of has strongly denied she set out to make him look bad.

Sarah Boardman, whose painting of him hung in the Colorado State Capitol until he demanded it was removed, said her business may never recover from the controversy.

Trump, 78, was annoyed because he felt she had painted his predessecor Barack Obama in a more flattering light.

‘He looks wonderful’, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. ‘But the one on me is truly the worst.’

In a statement on her website, British artist Ms Boardman said she had been inundated with requests to comment on the issue but would only give one response.

She said that for the six years the portrait hung in place, ‘I received overwhelmingly positive reviews and feedback. Since President Trump’s comments, that has changed for the worst.’

Defending her intentions as a painter, she said: ‘President Trump is entitled to comment freely, as we all are, but the additional allegations that I “purposefully distorted” the portrait, and that I “must have lost my talent as I got older” are now directly and negatively impacting my business of over 41 years which now is in danger of not recovering.’

When the portrait was unveiled in 2019, she said it had been called ‘thoughtful, non-confrontational, not angry, not happy, not tweeting. In five, 10, 15, 20 years, he will be another President on the wall who is only historical background, and he needs to look neutral.’