President Donald Trump has installed bronze plaques underneath presidential portraits at the White House that mock his predecessors with personal attacks and false claims.
The move caps off a week of unprecedented pettiness from the commander-in-chief.
Trump wrote most of the plaques himself, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The permanent signs read like his social media posts with random capitalizations and excessive exclamation points.
The plaque under Joe Biden’s portrait calls him “by far, the worst President in American History” and claims he took office “as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States.”
Trump also attacked Biden’s “severe mental decline” and mocked his use of the presidential autopen for signatures. Barack Obama’s plaque describes him as “one of the most divisive political figures in American History” and falsely claims he “spied on the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump.”
The plaque also references the “Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax” that Trump calls “the worst political scandal in American History.”
Hillary Clinton gets mentioned twice across different plaques. Under Obama’s portrait, Trump notes she was his “handpicked successor” who “would then lose the Presidency to Donald J. Trump.”
Bill Clinton’s plaque also mentions that “President Clinton’s wife, Hillary, lost the Presidency to President Donald J. Trump.”
This latest display of pettiness comes after Trump faced bipartisan criticism for his comments about Rob Reiner’s death. After the director and his wife were found murdered in their Beverly Hills home, Trump said Reiner was “very bad for our country” and suggested his death was related to “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Republican lawmakers called Trump’s remarks “disgusting” and “inappropriate.” GOP Rep. Thomas Massie said the comments were “disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered.”
Even conservative allies distanced themselves from Trump’s reaction. President Trump doubled down on his Reiner comments during a press conference.
“I wasn’t a fan of Rob Reiner at all in any way, shape or form,” he said while defending his initial statement.
The insulting plaques are part of Trump’s broader White House makeover, which includes paving over the Rose Garden and demolishing the East Wing to make way for a $300 million ballroom.
He’s also added gold leafing throughout the Oval Office and installed statues around the Rose Garden. Preservationists have filed multiple lawsuits to stop Trump’s renovations. The National Trust for Historic Preservation argues that these changes violate federal preservation laws.
The plaques now permanently display Trump’s grievances along the West Wing Colonnade, where visitors and dignitaries walk daily.