U.S. President Donald Trump has added a Presidential Walk of Fame to the exterior of the White House, featuring portraits of previous presidents — except for one.
The White House installed the new presidential portrait gallery along the West Wing Colonnade and unveiled the wall of photos on Wednesday.
Instead of using a headshot of former president Joe Biden, as was done for all the other former presidents, the White House hung a photo of an autopen signing Biden’s name, an apparent reference to Trump’s allegation that Biden didn’t understand what was going on during his presidency because of his use of an autopen to sign pardons and legislation.
An autopen is a tool that automatically generates signatures and has been used by U.S. presidents dating back to Thomas Jefferson in the 1800s. Trump has used it himself but said that he limits its use to personal correspondence.
Trump has previously called Biden’s alleged use of an autopen without his knowledge “the biggest scandal” in American political history, without providing any evidence.
“It’s a very bad thing, very dangerous,” Trump said in June, and argued that, “essentially, whoever used the autopen was the president.”
Trump also suggested that pardons Biden signed using the autopen should be considered null and void, and directed his administration to investigate Biden’s actions as president amid reporting that raised questions around his predecessor’s “cognitive decline.”
Biden pushed back on Trump’s claims in a statement in June.
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“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” Biden said.
Trump previously teased his plans for the portrait wall several times during an interview with The Daily Caller in late August.
He was asked if he was going to include Biden in the lineup after showing Reagan Reese, the White House correspondent for The Daily Caller, a sneak peek of the presidential portraits for the Rose Garden.
“Isn’t that an interesting question and I’ll listen to you too, because it’s a decision I have to make. We put up a picture of the autopen,” Trump revealed.
Trump explained his decision to feature the photo after Reese called the portrait choice “hilarious.”
“He didn’t win the race. He lost badly. He was a horrible president, but can you imagine, he says he has Stage Nine cancer. That was what? Two, three months ago,” Trump said.
The White House staff shared images on social media Wednesday, promoting the finished Presidential Walk of Fame.
“The Presidential Walk of Fame has arrived on the West Wing Colonnade,” special assistant to the president and communications adviser Margo Martin wrote on X, with a video of the portraits of the presidents in gold frames.
The addition of the Walk of Fame is the latest in a series of design changes Trump has made at the White House since resuming office. He’s also added gold flourishes to the Oval Office walls, installed massive new flagpoles on both lawns, replaced the grass in the Rose Garden with patio stone and started construction on a massive new ballroom.
— With files from Global News’ Sean Boynton and The Associated Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
