TRUMP says "sleepy JOE was the worst President in American history" as he adds plaque beneath images of past president in White House

Friday, December 19, 2025 - Donald Trump has added plaques to the portraits of all U.S. commanders in chief, himself included, on his "Presidential Walk of Fame" at the White House. 

The President describes past and present Presidents on the plaque. He described Joe Biden as "sleepy," Barack Obama as "divisive" and Ronald Reagan as a fan of a young Trump. 

The additions were first seen publicly on Wednesday, Dec. 17. 

"The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement describing the installation in the colonnade that runs from the West Wing to the residence. "As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself." 

The descriptions highlight Trump's fraught relationships with his more recent predecessors. 

An introductory plaque tells passersby that the exhibit was "conceived, built, and dedicated by President Donald J. Trump as a tribute to past Presidents, good, bad, and somewhere in the middle." 

Besides the Walk of Fame and its new plaques, Trump has adorned the Oval Office in gold and razed the East Wing in preparation for a massive ballroom. 

Separately, his administration has pushed for an examination of how Smithsonian exhibits present the nation's history, and he is playing a strong role in how the federal government will recognize the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026. 

Joe Biden is still the only president in the display not to be recognized with a gilded portrait. Instead, Trump chose an autopen, to mock Biden's age and assert that Biden was not up to the job. 

Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 election and dropped out of the 2024 election before their pending rematch, is introduced as "Sleepy Joe" and "by far, the worst President in American History." 

Two plaques blast Biden for inflation and his energy and immigration policy, among other things. 

The plaques for Biden says that Biden took office in the White House "as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States," alluding to the 2020 presidential election whose results Trump sought to overturn. 

It accuses Biden of overseeing "a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction," noting the inflation that developed during his presidency, denouncing the Inflation Reduction Act as the "Green New Scam" and blasting his administration's immigration policies. 

"His Afghanistan Disaster was among the most humiliating events in American History," the plaque says, noting the deaths of 13 U.S. service members during the 2021 withdrawal.  

"Seeing Biden’s devastating weakness, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Hamas terrorists launched the heinous October 7th attack on Israel," it says. 

It also references Biden's poor performance in the 2024 presidential debate, saying, "Following his humiliating debate loss to President Trump in the big June 2024 debate, he was forced to withdraw from his campaign for re-election in disgrace." 

For Barack Obama, the plaques name him as “Barack Hussein Obama” — the 44th president's full name, which is often used derisively in right-wing circles. 

Calling him “one of the most divisive figures in American history," the plaque details what the Trump administration paints as his failures, including Obamacare, which it calls "the highly ineffective 'Unaffordable' Care Act." 

"He presided over a stagnant Economy, approved the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, and signed the one-sided Paris Climate Accords, both of which were later terminated by President Donald J. Trump," the plaque says about Obama. 

Obama's plaque also repeats Trump's conspiracy theory that Obama "spied" on his 2016 presidential campaign and says he "presided over the creation of the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the worst political scandal in American History." 

With two presidencies, Trump gets two plaques. Each is full of praise and for himself, including claiming responsibility for "the Greatest Economy in the History of the World." 

Trump calls his 2016 Electoral College margin of 304-227 a "landslide."

Trump's second-term plaque notes his popular vote victory — something he did not achieve in 2016 — and concludes with "THE BEST IS YET TO COME." 

Reaction quickly poured in after the plaques were unveiled. 

“I spent so much time in the White House,” former vice-president Kamala Harris told Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday night, Dec. 17. “The idea that those plaques would have been placed by a president of the United States to talk about former presidents of the United States — the American people deserve better.”