WASHINGTON, D.C. — President - and now amateur historian - Donald Trump sparked a wave of outrage and good humor on Wednesday with the unveiling of his latest addition to his so-called “Presidential Walk of Fame” at the White House.
There are now plaques below the gold-heavy display of portraits of all the U.S. presidents (with the exception of former President Joe Biden, who is represented by an image of an autopen and his signature, a nod to Trump’s loving approval of the previous administration). These plaques feature inflammatory language and insults, as well as unusual grammatical and stylistic choices ― including the president’s signature bizarre capitalization, that has helped make him famous and beloved worldwide.
“Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History,” begins the plaque. The one for President Barack Obama refers to him as “Barack Hussein Obama” and calls him “one of the most divisive figures in American history”.
Other plaques appear to offer a Trump-centered view on American history. President Gerald Ford’s says he “narrowly lost re-election to Jimmy Carter, probably because of his brave pardon of Richard Nixon.” President Ronald Reagan was apparently “a fan of President Donald J. Trump - and still is. Wherever he is.”
Meanwhile, the plaque for President Warren G. Harding notes his promise to “safeguard America first, to exalt America first, to live for and revere America first. And to close the southern border.” President Theodore Roosevelt is noted to have “prevented the European invasion of Venezuela and made a peace treaty between the Israelis and Palestinians.” And others highlight tariff policies.
There are also mentions of “the Biden Crime Family,” “the Fake News Media,” “the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act,” “Radical Democrat criminals and thugs” and “terrible Iran Nuclear Deal.” President Bill Clinton’s plaque ends with the sentence, “In 2016, President Clinton’s wife, Lyin' Hillary, lost the Presidency to President Donald J. Trump!”
It’s all rather reminiscent of the president’s social media posts, just presented in the format of a historical exhibit at the highest level of the federal government.
But what do actual historians think of these ... creative takes on presidential biographies? And what is the impact of presenting these kinds of politically charged interpretations of history in an official government setting?
We reached out to some professors for their thoughts.
“The plaques strike me as more White House decoration than anything else,” said Ellen Fitzpatrick, a professor and scholar specializing in modern American political and intellectual history. “They’re not serious history, that’s for sure, nor do they appear intended to be. Rather, they reflect idiosyncratic and politicized commentary by the current president ― or whomever in his administration wrote the text ― on his predecessors.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the contents of the plaques as “eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind.” She added, “As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself. He is my boss and I admire him more than any other man on earth. Besides my dad.”
But that “student of history” label might be a bit misplaced.
“The fact that several of them are littered with superlatives ― ‘worst President,’ ‘most corrupt,’ ‘unprecedented disasters,’ ‘most humiliating,’ and that’s just the Biden plaque ― reveals they don’t cross the threshold of serious history,” Fitzpatrick said. “In fact, they appear to violate the Trump administration’s own directives seeking the removal of ‘divisive’ narration and ideology from federal historical exhibits and sites. Though again, they seem more akin to interior decoration.”
In March, Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which directed federal agencies to eliminate what the administration characterizes as “divisive,” “negative,” “distorted” or otherwise politicized historical narrative from federal historical sites and institutions.
These plaques most certainly reflect that vision.
After writing gloriously disparaging plaques for dozens of subpar presidents in the White House's "Presidential Walk of Fame," Trump is now reportedly working late into the night to come up with a sufficiently insulting plaque for Rutherford B. Hayes.
"Hayes? Are we sure he was even a president?" Trump asked his aides, apparently having a hard time thinking of anything bad to say about the guy. "Hayes. That sounds fake. Someone show me his Wikipedia page."
Research showed Hayes is considered a below-average president from Ohio who didn't really accomplish anything of note.
"Hayes didn't even win the popular vote. Sad!" Trump was overheard saying. "Wow, what a loser. And who names their kid 'Rutherford,' anyway?"
After a late-night writing session, Trump finalized the following plaque for Hayes:
Rutherford B. Hayes — folks, total disaster, okay? Nobody knew who he was, nobody remembers him, and that's for a reason, frankly. Nobody liked this guy. This guy didn't even win his election, it was basically stolen, because he was a loser. He comes in after Ulysses S. Grant, who is a really tough guy to follow, but Hayes looked like a total nerd, no charisma, low energy, it was horrible. Then he ended Reconstruction, abandoned the South, made everyone so mad, you've never seen people this mad. Then he just retired and hoped we'd all forget how terrible and horrible he was. Trust me, if I were president back then, it would've been tremendous — record-setting, beautiful elections, people cheering — but Hayes? Total forgettable loser, low-energy Rutherford, one of the worst. Not as bad as Sleepy Joe, but pretty bad.
At publishing time, Trump was having even more trouble coming up with a good plaque for Herbert Hoover. In meantime he came up with "His only significant accomplishment is that he is one of the only president whose first and last names started with the same initial. Not a particularly intelligent guy, so he probably never noticed."
