Trump Unveils Presidential ‘Walk of Fame’ With Plaques That Make Jabs at Biden and Obama

The White House unveiled plaques near the Oval Office that describe U.S. presidents with varying levels of accuracy, depending on President Trump’s opinion of them.

The White House unveiled a series of plaques near the Oval Office on Wednesday that mock President Trump’s recent Democratic predecessors in the style of his hyperbolic social media posts.

The plaques portray an often inaccurate version of history that aligns with Mr. Trump’s worldview. There are two plaques for Mr. Trump, one for each of his terms, which effusively praise him, while those for former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and former President Barack Obama mock them and their achievements.

The plaque for Mr. Obama falsely describes him as “one of the most divisive political figures in American history.” (To this day, Mr. Obama has the highest favorability rating of any living president.) The plaque for Mr. Biden is placed under a picture of an autopen and promotes Mr. Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Both plaques include a number of Trump-style insults and attacks on Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama.

The exhibit, called the Presidential Walk of Fame, features every U.S. president, describing their records in office with varying levels of accuracy and fondness depending on their party affiliation and, apparently, Mr. Trump’s opinion of them. The descriptions become more pointed and partisan as they approach the current era. The plaque for Ronald Reagan, for example, declares that “he was a fan of President Donald J. Trump before President Trump’s historic run for the White House. Likewise, President Trump was a fan of his!”

At times, the plaques give the impression that Mr. Trump is narrating his own skewed version of presidential history. The one for Andrew Johnson, considered by historians to be one of the least effective presidents, muses that “Abraham Lincoln was a very hard act to follow.” The plaque for Gerald R. Ford opines that he lost re-election “probably because of his brave pardon of Richard Nixon.” Jimmy Carter’s gives a dismal review of his presidency while remarking that, after leaving office, “he did wonderful things for humanity!”

Bill Clinton’s plaque seeks to downplay Mr. Clinton’s role in his administration’s achievements. His legislation, the plaque says, was passed “with the leadership of Republicans in Congress,” adding that “the tech boom of the late 1990s resulted in excellent economic growth, which helped him and Republicans in Congress deliver balanced budgets.” The description also pointedly mentions Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 election to Mr. Trump.

The plaques also focus on policies that echo Mr. Trump’s. Many of the plaques mention tariff policies — an executive power that largely fell out of favor between the Great Depression and Mr. Trump’s second term. Warren G. Harding’s plaque highlights his campaign vow to “safeguard America first, to exalt America first, to live for and revere America first.” The one for Theodore Roosevelt says he “prevented the European invasion of Venezuela.”

The installation of the walk is the latest action by the Trump White House that attacks Mr. Trump’s Democratic predecessors.

For example, the White House website features an innocuous-looking educational page about the history of the White House that includes partisan attacks and insults directed at Mr. Clinton, Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden. The page includes facts about White House renovations alongside mentions of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a photo of Mr. Obama in a turban and a jab at Mr. Biden for hosting “transsexuals at the White House” for a Transgender Day of Visibility.

Before the plaques were installed, the Presidential Walk of Fame had initially consisted just of the portraits of American presidents, and pointedly did not include a portrait of Mr. Biden. Instead, Mr. Biden’s name was placed under a photo of an autopen — which is still on display in the exhibit — in reference to Mr. Trump’s unfounded claims that many of Mr. Biden’s executive actions were legally invalid because they were signed with an autopen.

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