Did trump put sayings below past president’s pictures
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Executive summary
President Donald Trump ordered bronze plaques —what his White House calls the “Presidential Walk of Fame”—installed beneath portraits of past U.S. presidents along the West Wing colonnade, and those plaques feature partisan captions that praise Trump and attack recent predecessors, with Biden’s spot uniquely replaced by an image of an autopen [1] [2] [3]. Major outlets documented the rollout, noted that some text repeats disputed claims, and reported the White House’s assertion that Trump wrote many of the descriptions himself [1] [4] [5].
1. What happened: plaques, placement and presentation
On Dec. 17, the White House installed explanatory plaques under the presidential portraits along the colonnade outside the West Wing, a display the administration is calling the “Presidential Walk of Fame,” and photographs released by news agencies show the new bronze text panels beneath multiple portraits [1] [4]. The Biden space notably lacks a traditional painted portrait and instead displays a photograph of an autopen signature next to plaques that label Biden with insults like “the worst President in American History,” language that multiple outlets reproduced [3] [2].
2. Content: partisan praise and disputed claims
The plaques are overtly political: several conclude with praise of Trump’s record or re-election predictions and many cast Democratic predecessors in negative terms — Obama is called “divisive” and Biden “sleepy” or “the worst,” while Reagan is framed more positively as a fan of a young Trump [2] [6] [7]. Reporting across AP, BBC, NBC and others also flagged that some inscriptions repeat long-disputed or false allegations — for example, claims about Obama “spying” on the 2016 campaign and assertions about Biden’s election that critics characterize as baseless [6] [3] [8].
3. Who made them and the official line
The White House and press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the project as historical reflection and said many plaques were written “directly by the President himself,” an explicit claim repeated in conservative and mainstream outlets covering the rollout [5] [9]. The administration framed the plaques as personalization of White House decor — a continuation of Trump’s prior efforts to reshape the residence to his tastes — and positioned the text as a permanent testament to his interpretations of presidential legacies [10] [4].
4. Journalistic response and fact‑checking concerns
News organizations from the AP and BBC to NBC and Newsweek documented the plaques and immediately noted the partisan tone and factual gaps, prompting fact‑check teams to flag exaggerated and disputed lines; BBC’s Verify team and AP compiled examples and context to critique accuracy [11] [1]. Multiple outlets explicitly described some claims as “unsupported” or “disputed,” and fact‑checkers treated the inscriptions as political messaging rather than neutral historical summaries [8] [6].
5. Political meaning and likely motives
Analysts and critics framed the plaques as both an exercise in legacy-shaping and a form of political theater: by cementing Trump’s language in bronze in the executive mansion, the administration signals an intent to normalize its interpretations of recent administrations and to use White House space for ongoing partisan messaging [4] [12]. Supporters presented it as corrective history-writing; opponents saw it as propaganda and an abuse of civic symbolism — reporting reflects both readings in coverage [13] [12].
6. Limits of reporting and what remains unclear
The reporting establishes that plaques were installed, that many contain partisan and disputed claims, and that the White House says Trump authored some text [1] [5]. What the sources do not establish in full detail are the internal decision‑making memos, whether outside historians were consulted, or the complete text of every plaque as photographed in situ — those specifics are not fully documented across the cited reports and thus cannot be definitively stated here [4] [2].
Conclusion
In short: yes — President Trump did put captions, or “plaques,” beneath portraits of past presidents in the White House colonnade; the panels are explicitly political, include praise of Trump and criticisms of Biden and Obama, and have prompted fact‑checking and debate about accuracy and propriety [1] [2] [11].