President Donald Trump has reworked the White House portrait gallery, installing partisan plaques along a Presidential Walk of Fame that use combative language and have prompted a fresh controversy after earlier reports revealed insulting captions about predecessors.The plaques include a photograph of an automatic pen instead of a gilded likeness for Joe Biden, call him “Sleepy Joe,” accuse him of bringing the nation to the brink of destruction and repeat an unsubstantiated claim about the 2020 election, while Barack Obama’s panel blames him for Crimea and the expansion of Islamic State and other panels mix praise and criticism.White House press secretary
Karoline Leavitt defended the captions as eloquent descriptions and said many were written by Trump, The Associated Press distributed photos that circulated widely, critics including
Gavin Newsom and
Kamala Harris called the display partisan and insulting, and legal and preservation fights over related renovations — including a roughly $400 million East Wing ballroom and a
National Trust lawsuit — are continuing as architect
James McCrery II paused work.
Published: 21h | Updated: 14m