The artist Ashley Longshore has a new book, Politics Is a Drag, that reimagines every US President as a drag queen. The idea was born out of Longshore’s frustration with the country’s political climate and a desire to create something uplifting instead of despairing. “We’re living in a time when you can’t ignore what’s happening in politics,” she says. “I have three choices. I can be very upset. I can be very angry. Or I can do what a good American woman entrepreneur would do: paint these Presidents, make them far more interesting, and turn them into drag queens.”
Longshore says the project is ultimately a celebration of drag artists and the creativity they bring to American culture. She found herself laughing as she painted glitter brows, dramatic lashes, and bold makeup across American history: “I felt a joy that was tied to politics that I hadn’t felt before.”
Photographs courtesy of Rizzoli New York.
Only one President doesn’t appear in drag: the current one. Instead, he’s depicted as Pennywise, the evil clown from Stephen King’s It.
Longshore hopes Politics Is a Drag ultimately leaves people with something she believes America needs more of right now: positivity. As she puts it, “I simply made these guys far more interesting to look at.”
Tristan Espinoza joined Washingtonian as an Editorial Fellow in 2026. A proud Osage Native from Dallas, Texas, he is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) at American University. He is a graduate of Columbia University and the London School of Economics. He lives in Mount Pleasant.
