Donald Trump has a new project at the White House, and it’s dripping with gold. New photos show crews at work in the Rose Garden colonnade. They are turning it into Trump’s “Presidential Hall of Fame.”
A shiny gold banner now hangs over the walkway with those words printed in a retro-looking font. Below it, rows of brown paper mark the spots where portraits of past presidents will soon appear. Trump first teased the idea during a September 1 interview with the far-right site The Daily Caller. He revealed the portraits will all be black-and-white. But, of course, framed in his signature gold.
Trump now destroying the classic and historic West Colonnade at the White House. He’s lining it with portraits in ornate gilded frames. pic.twitter.com/DsPtULlNHC
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) August 20, 2025
But not every president will make the cut. He was asked if Joe Biden would get a spot. Trump replied, apparently serious, “We put up a picture of the autopen.” The president was referring to the machine he insists Biden used to sign official documents. He called it “the biggest political scandal in American history.”
Trump even showed interviewer Henry Reese the image chosen for Biden’s section. “Same picture, but black and white,” he said. Then he added with a grin, “and I’m not using that one with the smile. I’m using… show the other one that we’re using because I like it. This is going to be very controversial.”
The White House hasn’t commented.
Exactly which presidents will appear is unclear. Trump hinted there would be two portraits of Democrat Grover Cleveland, who served two nonconsecutive terms, and two of himself. “We have two. So you put up two,” he said. “I feel a little guilty doing it, because you could put up one, but the way they do it is they put up two.”
Trump said the only other “Presidential Hall of Fame” he knows is the private portrait hallway at the Washington Hilton hotel. “That’s the only one I’ve ever seen… They must have Presidential Wall of Fames, right? I’ve never seen one except at the Hilton,” he said. The real-life Presidents Hall of Fame in Clermont, Florida, boasts wax presidents, a mini White House, and even a replica Mount Rushmore, plus a 4.2-star rating on Yelp.
Trump’s White House makeover doesn’t stop there.
He has already filled the mansion with portraits of himself, at least five. The most striking is Fight, Fight, Fight, a painting by Marc Lipp. That recreates a bloody photo of Trump taken just after the 2024 assassination attempt. It now hangs in the entrance hall. It has replaced Barack Obama’s official portrait.
Another pop-art Trump face with an American flag background greets visitors in the East Wing. It is wedged between portraits of Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush, near Melania Trump’s office. A third portrait hangs in the West Wing, right between Reagan and Lincoln.
Trump has also installed two towering flagpoles. It paves over the Rose Garden lawn to make it look more like Mar-a-Lago, and coated the Oval Office in gold trim, gold frames, mirrors, cherubs, even gold coasters.
Trumps new “presidential hall of fame” outside the West Wing.
He’s said @JoeBiden’s picture will be an auto pen. pic.twitter.com/5oW3pv3ImR
— Diana Nerozzi (@diana_nerozzi) September 22, 2025
And he’s not done yet.
“We’re making it a little bigger. It will be top-of-the-line, as good as it can get anywhere in the world,” Trump said of his plan to add a ballroom big enough to seat 900 people.
