President Donald Trump this week added new plaques under presidential portraits along the White House colonnade. The small signs do not read like neutral history notes. They use sharp language and make claims about recent presidents that officials say were written by Mr. Trump himself.
Under a portrait that stands in for President Joe Biden, the plaque calls him out by name. It says in full, “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History,” and continues that he took office “as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States” and that “Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”
The plaque also blames Mr. Biden for economic trouble, for policy choices on climate and immigration, and for the chaotic US exit from Afghanistan. It goes on to say his “weakness” allowed Russia to invade Ukraine and allowed “Hamas terrorists [to] launch the heinous October 7th attack on Israel.” The panel also repeats an attack on Mr. Biden that the president calls “severe mental decline,” and it mocks his use of an autopen.
A nearby plaque aimed at former president Barack Obama uses a different tack but the same tone. It reads, “Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, a community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History.” The text adds a claim that Mr. Obama “spied on the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump, and presided over the creation of the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the worst political scandal in American History.”
New plaques have been installed below the photos of Presidents along the new White House Presidential Walk of Fame. pic.twitter.com/JG20bWtvTL
β Zoe Cox (@ZoeCox110598) December 17, 2025
The White House press office defended the display. Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind. As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself,” according to the statement released with the new exhibit.
Mr. Trump had hinted at the plaques in media interviews last month while showing off his redesign of the Oval Office and the colonnade. He told a Fox host the walkway would describe what each president did while in office. The new signs match the show and tell style he used in that interview.
The plaques arrive as part of a broader makeover of the White House grounds and offices this year. The administration has paved parts of the Rose Garden and moved forward with plans that include tearing down the East Wing to make room for a large ballroom. Preservation groups have sued and a judge has for now allowed work to continue under limits.
Not everyone was amused. Social media users posted sharp replies and a sampling shows the tone. One wrote, “We are not a serious country anymore.”
We are not a serious country anymore. https://t.co/ldXptbmky4
β Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 17, 2025
What in the actual fuck is wrong with that dude?
β Kayn (@Aurkayne) December 17, 2025
This is what happens when you elect a toddler with a Sharpie and a grudge: the White House becomes his personal tantrum wall. Petty, profane, and profoundly un-American. Tear them down.
β Dr. Cole (@1drcole) December 17, 2025
This. pic.twitter.com/GullW0MFSv
β TeinaΒ΄sPosts.πͺπΊ (@RafaMorgan64) December 17, 2025
This isnβt just about Obama or Biden. Itβs about teaching trumpβs supporters that cruelty is power, that humiliation is governance, and that the state itself can be used to settle emotional scores. Yet another example of a small, cruel man exposing his pettiness with the nationβsβ¦
β BluByU (@Udntnonutn) December 17, 2025
It should be illegal for president’s to decorate the White House with political attacks but it’s not because in a normal world it’s an “unwritten rule” understood by all. This has become absurd. This is not Trump’s house. He shouldn’t be allowed to do whatever he wants with it.
β ChandLogan (@ChandLogan) December 17, 2025
Since Trump has made it a norm the next Dem president can turn his face into a guest urinal for the White House.
β BadTrumpQuips (@BadTrumpQuips) December 17, 2025
This is insanity. He’s turning the White House into the fantasy room of a 12-year-old bully who has no friends. This is sickness. MAGA can’t possibly think there’s a whit of dignity or decency in Donald Trump. This is embarrassing, childish, and another defilement of our country.
β Adrienne (@AdrienneMH2425) December 17, 2025
He doesnβt govern β he vandalizes.
When the country needs competence, he installs tantrums in bronze.This is what insecurity looks like with federal staff and taxpayer walls.
A president so small he needs plaques to βwinβ arguments with ghosts.And notice the rot: insultsβ¦
β AnatolijUkraine (@AnatoliUkraine) December 17, 2025
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
