Donald Trump has added a new “presidential walk of fame” to the White House—but he has replaced Joe Biden’s portrait with an autopen.
After paving over the Rose Garden, blinging up the Oval Office, and starting construction on his grand ballroom, the president now has a colonnade filled with gold-framed images of America’s past presidents, from Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter to Trump’s longtime nemesis, Barack Obama.
But instead of an image of Biden, the White House has put up a black and white photo of the device that was occasionally used to sign the former president’s signature, in a nod to what Trump often refers to as “one of the biggest scandals of all time.”
Trump has repeatedly criticized the former Biden administration for using an autopen to sign off on important documents at a time when the Democratic president was in cognitive decline.
He has also alleged that not only did aides use an autopen, but they may have done so without him knowing, and that many of the documents Biden signed, including presidential pardons, could be therefore void.
Now, the autopen has pride of place on the famed walkway that connects the central Executive Residence to the West Wing, which includes the Oval Office.
The new art was revealed in a social media post on Wednesday by Margot Martin, the White House’s special adviser to the president.
“The Presidential Walk of Fame has arrived on the West Wing Colonnade. Wait for it…” she wrote, alongside an eye emoji and a pen emoji.
The White House also posted a photo of Trump walking on the colonnade inspecting the image, which sits next to his own black and white portraits marking his 45th and 47th presidencies.
But not everyone was impressed. Chris D Jackson, an ardent Biden supporter and chair of the Democratic Party in Lawrence County, Tennessee, described the move as a “childish, despicable stunt.”
Others responded on social media with framed images of Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, or photos of Trump’s lewd birthday letter to Epstein, telling the White House: “fixed it.”
“Childish. Petty. Tacky. Predictable,” said former US Attorney Joyce Vance.
The newly decorated colonnade is the latest example of Trump making his mark on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Since returning to Washington, the former real estate developer has added a swathe of gold to the Oval Office, with gold curtains, gold cherubs above doorways, and gold framed mirrors.
Trump has also removed various portraits and replaced them with more of his own.
A portrait of Obama that once sat in the White House entrance, for example, has now been replaced with a painting of Trump’s iconic “Fight! Fight! Fight!” image from the day he was almost assassinated in Pennsylvania.
And he has paved over the grass in the Rose Garden, replacing lawn areas with stone tiles and adding tacky tables with bright yellow umbrellas from Mar-a-Lago to make it an event space for his allies.
