In September, the White House in Washington, D.C., announced the Presidential Walk of Fame located in the West Wing. This caused controversy due to the replacement of former President Joe Biden’s portrait with that of an autopen. Now, Trump has added plaques to the display, and many of them are insulting rather than objective.
Beneath the spot labeled “Joe Biden,” which still features the image of an autopen, a lengthy description begins. It refers to Biden as “Sleepy Joe” and now says that Biden was “the worst President in American History.” The plaque for President Barack Obama accuses him of multiple misdeeds and states that Obama “crippled small businesses with crushing regulation.” It’s worth noting that some have blamed Trump’s gutting of regulations for a rise in product recalls and a decrease in things like food safety for Americans.
During the first year of Trump’s second term, inflation has skyrocketed. This administration’s tariff policies have also put a strain on owners of many different-sized businesses. However, Trump has insisted on multiple occasions that these issues are only temporary; whether or not that’s true remains to be seen.
An All-American Embarrassment
In a statement to the press, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that many of the descriptions had been written by Trump himself. In the first year of his second term of presidency, Donald Trump has made a multitude of controversial policy changes as well as “updates” to the White House itself.
First came his redecoration of the Oval Office with golden decorations. Then, Trump demolished the famous White House Rose Garden and replaced it with a paved area. Trump also recently destroyed the White House’s East Wing and plans to replace it with a gaudy ballroom.
The updates to the Presidential Walk of Fame have received harsh backlash online. “A ‘classy’ president wouldn’t be so desperate for attention and validation,” one X user wrote. Another called the plaques “vulgar” and said they were “embarrassed to say I’m an American.“
Despite the attempts of Trump and his administration to make themselves look better, it’s safe to say that this hasn’t done the job. Let’s hope that, despite what the Presidential Walk of Fame’s mission statement says, this monument to Trump’s dubious success won’t “long live as a testament and tribute to the Greatness of America.”
