Donald Trump has attacked Barack Obama and Joe Biden by hanging disparaging plaques under their portraits at the White House. The US President refashioned a colonnade running from the West Wing to the leader’s residence into what he called the Presidential Walk of Fame.

Portraits of past US presidents lined the route, but new plaques have appeared underneath them, describing each leader in a partisan way and in Trumpian terms. Former President Barack Obama is labelled “one of the most divisive political figures in American history”.

Under Mr Obama’s portrait, the plaque adds: “As President, he passed the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act, resulting in his party losing control of both Houses of Congress, and the Election of the largest House Republican majority since 1946”.

The barbs end with an unfounded claim Mr Obama “spied on the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump, and presided over the creation of the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the worst political scandal in American History”.

Ex-President Joe Biden’s plaque repeats false claims Mr Biden took office “as a result of the most corrupt election ever”.

The plaque below former President George W. Bush’s portrait states Mr Bush “started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which should not have happened”.

Each plaque uses phrases, punctuation and the capitalisation of words similar to the writing style of Mr Trump’s social media posts.

Under a portrait of former president Ronald Reagan, the plaque says: “Known as ‘The Great Communicator,’ he was re-elected in a landslide in 1984, and left office with high approval”.

It adds: “He was a fan of President Donald J. Trump long before President Trump’s Historic run for the White House. Likewise, President Trump was a fan of his”.

Beneath a portrait of former president John F. Kennedy, the plaque praises Mr Kennedy’s “stirring rhetoric” and for “skilfully” navigating the threat of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sought to defend the plaques, saying in a statement: “The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind. As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself.”