Trump replaces Biden portrait with autopen in Presidential Walk of Fame

Trump unveils mock ?Presidential Portrait? of Biden at White House

On Wednesday, September 24, the Trump Administration unveiled its new Presidential Walk of Fame at the White House, featuring a framed image of former President Joe Biden?s autopen signature in place of the traditional presidential portrait. (Credit: Margo Martin via Storyful)

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has unveiled a Presidential Walk of Fame along the exterior of the White House, displaying portraits of every past commander-in-chief — except one.

In place of Joe Biden’s official portrait, the Republican incumbent installed a photograph of an autopen signing Biden’s name — a nod to Trump’s repeated claim that, by the end of his presidency, Biden was too impaired to be making decisions himself.

RELATED: Trump orders probe into Biden autopen use calling it a White House ‘cover-up’

The backstory:

The snub amounts to the latest attempt by Trump to delegitimize a predecessor he routinely belittles, including in front of more than 100 world leaders on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly gathering. Trump has never acknowledged his own defeat to Biden in the 2020 election, instead falsely chalking up the outcome to voter fraud.

Trump had previously signaled he would represent Biden with an autopen on the Presidential Walk of Fame. Trump has alleged without evidence that Biden administration officials might have forged their boss’s signature by using the autopen and taken broad actions he wasn’t aware of.

RELATED: What is an autopen?

NYT: Biden gave approval for autopen pardons

In an interview with The New York Times last week, former President Joe Biden defended his use of an autopen to sign clemency decisions he made in the last days of his term. This comes as Biden's mental and physical health at the end of his term have been called into question by President Trump and other Republicans, suggesting Biden was not in an appropriate state of mind to approve the autopen signatures to staff. Political reporter Tom Lobianco and Justice Department reporter Kaelen Deese join LiveNOW's Andrew Craft to discuss Biden's statements to the Times and why there has been so much controversy surrounding his use of the autopen.

He's also cast doubt on the validity of pardons and other documents that Biden signed with an autopen, even though other presidents before him have also relied on the device to sign key papers. A key Republican-led House committee also is investigating the Biden administration’s autopen use.

White House staff sent out a burst of social media posts Wednesday afternoon gleefully promoting the finished project. The media may get its first in-person glimpse of the Walk of Fame when Trump hosts a dinner Wednesday night on the new Rose Garden patio that sits adjacent to the West Wing Collonad on which the portraits hang.

Big picture view:

The addition of the Walk of Fame is the latest in a series of design changes he's 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.