President Donald Trump’s “wall of fame” depicting all 46 people to serve as president along a walkway between the White House residence and the West Wing is complete — with one notable exception.
The White House unveiled the installation this week by releasing several photos of Trump admiring the display as he walked towards the Oval Office,
The photos are housed in gilt frames and are displayed in order of administration, with two images of Trump and two of former President Grover Cleveland, who served as the 22nd and 24th president.
But in between the photos of Trump reflecting his service as both the 45th and 47th president, a picture of the 46th president was nowhere to be found.
In place of a photograph of Trump’s predecessor-turned-successor, former president Joe Biden, there was only a snapshot of an autopen captured in the act of signing Biden’s signature.
The snub of Biden makes good on a pledge Trump made in an interview with The Daily Caller earlier this month when he joked that he would hang a photo of the autopen instead of Biden.
It’s a reference to claims made by Trump and other Republicans, who have accused the ex-president’s staff of making decisions on his behalf and ratifying them with the mechanical device without his knowledge.
Biden and his former aides have denied anything of the sort took place, with the president telling The New York Times in an interview that he was involved in “every decision” to sign off on certain documents, such as clemency and pardons issued at the end of his term.
Nonetheless, Trump has called the allegations a “tremendous scandal” and claimed that Biden “knew nothing about what he was signing” as he has repeatedly theorized that Biden’s frequent use of the autopen, a commonly used practice among presidents and officials, is directly correlated to his alleged mental decline.
Under a longstanding opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, using an autopen to sign presidential documents is legally binding as long as the president has authorized the signature.
A spokesperson for former president Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
