White House installs plaques mocking former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden; NBC News, December 17, 2025

 Sarah Dean, Garrett Haake, Alexandra Bacallao and Rebecca Shabad , NBC News; White House installs plaques mocking former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden

[Kip Currier: This quote by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is jaw-droppingly farcical:

"The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind," she said. "As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-installs-plaques-mocking-former-presidents-barack-obama-jo-rcna249746 

 

To refer to such defamatory and erroneous statements as "eloquently written" is the epitome of George Orwell's 1984 Newspeak, in which words used by propagandists are converse from their true meanings, e.g. Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength.]

[Excerpt]

"The White House has installed plaques on the exterior of the building bashing President Donald Trump's predecessors, including Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and promoting disinformation about their administrations.

The plaques were hung up below presidential portraits that have been on display on Trump’s recently added "Presidential Walk of Fame" in the White House colonnade.

The one placed under the portrait of the “Autopen," which stands in for President Joe Biden's portrait, refers to him as “Sleepy Joe Biden” and calls him “the worst President in American History.” The plaque contains a number of derisive statements about the former president, referring to Biden’s “severe mental decline,” “the Biden Crime Family” and his “Radical Left handlers."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News in a statement that Trump wrote the text of "many" of the plaques.

“The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind," she said. "As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself.”"

Fox News hosts blast Trump over 'repulsive' White House plaques; AlterNet, December 19, 2025

Thomas Kika , AlterNet; Fox News hosts blast Trump over 'repulsive' White House plaques

"Donald Trump got a sharp rebuke from his Fox News on Friday as hosts decried the recent addition of insulting plaques about Democratic presidents at the White House as "trolling" and "repulsive."

While not the largest and eye-catching change Trump has made to the White House, his addition of a "Presidential Walk of Fame" has nonetheless made headlines for insulting jabs at his political opponents. When the feature was first introduced in September, former President Joe Biden was represented with a photo of an autopen instead of a portrait, referencing the tool for signatures which Trump has falsely claimed invalidates some of the executive orders and pardons that his predecessor issued.

More recently, reporters noticed the addition of new plaques beneath thephotos of Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Under Biden's photo, the new plaque reads "Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History. Taking office as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States, Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction." It also added references to Trump's long-debunked claim that Biden's win in the 2020 election was the result of widespread voter fraud.

The new plaque for Obama refers to him as "divisive" and attacks him for the passage of the "Unaffordable Care Act" and joining the Paris Climate Accords. It also repeated Trump's unfounded claims that the Obama administration spied on his 2016 campaign and fabricated claims that it colluded with Russia. While less directly insulting, Clinton's plaque was given a new note about his wife, Hillary Clinton, losing the 2016 election to Trump."

When the White House press secretary says ‘your mom,’ it’s not a joke. It’s the message.; Poynter, October 21, 2025

 Ren LaForme, Amaris Castillo and TyLisa Johnson, Poynter; When the White House press secretary says ‘your mom,’ it’s not a joke. It’s the message.

"Late last week, after President Donald Trump said he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine, HuffPost correspondent S.V. Dáte reached out to the White House with a straightforward question: Who picked Budapest?

In 1994, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Russia met in Budapest, where Ukraine agreed to give up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal in exchange for Russia’s promise to respect its sovereignty and existing borders, and to refrain from using force or coercion against it. Given that context, the choice of Budapest struck some as tone-deaf.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded, but not with an explanation. Instead, she replied: “Your mom did.” She later posted a screenshot of the exchange on X, called Dáte “a left-wing hack” and said he masquerades as a real reporter.

It’s another breach of the professionalism that once defined interactions between reporters and the White House, even in moments of tension. Every administration has had its spats with the press — Richard Nixon’s enemies list, Barack Obama’s leak prosecutions, Joe Biden’s limited-access strategy — but Trump’s team has turned that antagonism into a communications strategy.

Since January, the White House has taken direct control of the press pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association, censored pool reports before release, eliminated a wire reporter’s pool slot and reassigned the traditional first questions in briefings to friendly outlets. It has removed journalists from the president’s travel pool and restricted access to events that had long been open to the full press corps. (See our Press Freedom Watch for a running list of such incidents).

When a press secretary can respond to a reporter’s question with “your mom” and post it proudly online, it’s not a slip of decorum. It’s the message."