President Donald Trump has affixed party plaques to the portraits of all US presidents, including himself, on the “Presidential Walk of Fame” at the White House, describing Joe Biden as “a sleeper,” Barack Obama as a “divisive” and Ronald Reagan as a young Trump fan.
The additions, seen publicly for the first time on Wednesday, mark Trump’s latest attempt to remake the White House in his own image, while flouting the principles of how presidents treated their predecessors and reiterating his determination to reshape the way American history is told.
“These boards are artistic descriptions of each President and the legacy they leave behind,” White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said in a statement explaining the installation of the corridor from the West Wing to the residence. “As a student of history, many were written by the President himself.”
Of course, explanations include the president’s bombastic language and haphazard capitalization. They also highlight Trump’s strained relationship with his recent predecessors.
An introductory plaque tells passers-by that the exhibit was “conceived, built, and dedicated by President Donald J. Trump as a tribute to past Presidents, the good, the bad, and somewhere in between.”
Besides the Walk of Fame and its new plaques, Trump decorated the Oval Office with gold and gutted the East Wing to make way for a large ballroom. Separately, his administration has pushed for an examination of how the Smithsonian’s exhibits present the nation’s history, and is playing a strong role in how the federal government will mark the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
Here’s a look at how Trump’s colonel parade tells the president’s story.
Joe Biden
Joe Biden is still the only president featured in the show who can’t be seen through the lens. Instead, Trump opted for an autopen, showing his mockery of Biden’s age and his assertion that Biden was out of a job.
Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 election and dropped out of the 2024 election ahead of their pending rematch, was introduced as “Sleeping Joe” and “the worst President in American history.”
Two plaques blasted Biden on inflation and his energy and immigration policies, among other things.
Biden’s post-White House office has no comment on his plaque.
Barack Obama
The 44th president is described as “a social activist, a one-name Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American history.”
The plaque calls Obama’s signature domestic achievement the ineffective “Unaffordable Care Act.”
An Obama aide also declined to comment.
George W. Bush
George W. Bush, who did not speak to Trump when they were last together at former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral, appears to be getting approval to create the Department of Homeland Security and lead the nation after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But the panel laments that Bush “started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which should not have happened.”
A Bush aide did not return a message seeking comment.
Bill Clinton
The 42nd president, a former friend of Trump, is getting little praise for a major crime law, social security reform and a balanced budget.
But her poster notes that Clinton achieved those gains through a Republican Congress, with the help of the “tech boom” of the 1990s and “despite the scandals that plagued her Presidency.”
Clinton’s recognition described the North American Free Trade Agreement, one of her biggest achievements, as “bad for the United States” and something Trump would “do away with” during his first presidency. (Trump actually negotiated some terms with Mexico and Canada but didn’t abandon the key deal.)
His plaque ends with the line: “In 2016, President Clinton’s wife, Hillary, lost the Presidency to President Donald J. Trump!”
A Clinton aide did not return a message seeking comment.
Donald Trump
With two presidents, Trump gets two shows. Each is full of praises and tragedies — “The Greatest Economy in the History of the World.” He calls his 2016 Electoral College margin of 304-227 a “landslide.”
Trump’s second term plaque marks his popular vote victory — something he didn’t achieve in 2016 — and concludes with “THE BEST IS YET TO COME.”
Meanwhile, the presentation plaque assumes that Trump’s addition will be the White House if he is no longer president: “The Presidential Walk of Fame will live long as a testimony and a tribute to the Greatness of America.”
The reaction set in immediately after the plaques were revealed.
“I spent a lot of time in the White House,” the former vice president said Kamala Harris said Jimmy Kimmel Live Wednesday night. “The idea that those boards would have been put up by the president of the United States to talk about former presidents of the United States – the American people deserve better.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office posted a photo of Trump’s X appearing to be Photoshopped over his portrait.
Beneath the photoshopped image, the edited caption reads: “DONALD IS FINISHED — NO MORE ‘HOT.'”
