Washington: If it weren’t enough that Donald Trump childishly replaced Joe Biden’s photo with a picture of an autopen on his new Presidential Walk of Fame, the White House has now installed derogatory plaques under some of the portraits.

Biden is described as “by far the worst president in American history”, who suffered “severe mental decline” in office. Barack Obama is blamed for the spread of Islamic State and Russia’s invasion of Crimea, while even Republican George W. Bush comes in for criticism over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

New plaques have been placed under the presidential portraits along the West Wing.Credit: Bloomberg

Needless to say, Trump’s plaques offer a fawning summary of his own achievements and the size of his electoral victories. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president – “a student of history” – dictated many of the plaques himself.

While self-absorbed and obviously juvenile, it’s also instructive of how Trump and his team see the first year of his second presidency: the triumph of the superlatively brilliant (Trump) over the superlatively awful (Biden). The righting of a seismic, historical wrong.

That tone was echoed in Trump’s rare prime-time address to the........

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