Why Trump can’t let go of his Joe Biden punching bag
When President Trump promoted his Super Bowl interview over the weekend, he had to get a dig in, at former President Biden.
“There hasn’t been one in four years (Gee I wonder why),” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
That was a nod to Biden’s decision to not do a Super Bowl interview — a sign of trouble, Democratic strategist David Axelrod said this week. Biden did do interviews connected to the big game during the first two years of his presidency.
Two days later, Trump announced he was taking away Biden’s security clearance and his ability to access classified information.
“I will always protect our national security —JOE, YOU’RE FIRED,” Trump wrote in another social media post.
Almost a month into his second term — and six months after Biden dropped out of the presidential race — Trump hardly goes a day without mentioning his two-time rival.
Even as Trump has approached his second term with a mandate, seeking to remake the government and issuing a slew of executive orders and proclamations, he sees Biden as a foil, and even a political punching bag.
“Trump likes to punch down and with Biden’s unpopularity, he’s a very tempting target,” said Doug Heye, the veteran Republican strategist. “Biden is one of Trump’s favorite punching bags and he seems to enjoy it.”
Another Republican strategist said Trump “consistently goes after the weakest link and that happens to be Biden.”
At the same time, Democrats are quick to point out that Biden was the only one to electorally defeat Trump, and that still eats at him.
“He suffered the greatest professional loss of his life when he lost resoundingly to President Biden in 2020,” said Democratic strategist Lynda Tran. “I would expect him to continue to draw a contrast wherever he can — whether it’s big policy and substance or on personal style.”
Trump has a history of using rivals to boost his appeal.
In 2016, after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, he frequently invoked her, using his moniker “Crooked Hillary” in social media posts and speeches.
“She just can’t stop, which is so good for the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on the social platform X, then known as Twitter, at the time. “Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!”
The comment and others like it prompted Clinton to say that Trump was “obsessed” with her.
“I’m going to keep speaking out,” the former Democratic nominee told an Arkansas crowd in 2017.
Unlike Clinton, Biden has all but disappeared from public view since leaving office last month.
And Biden, Democrats point out, didn’t even ultimately compete against Trump in the 2024 election.
Still, Trump hasn’t homed in as much on his rival in the 2024 race, former Vice President Kamala Harris.
And he hasn’t gone after other high profile Democrats, including former President Obama, after saying last month that he and Obama “probably do” like each other, after the two chatted at former President Carter’s funeral last month.
Instead, he has sought to contrast his current standing with Biden.
“Trump has invested a lot of resources into making Joe Biden a bogeyman and it’s hard to let him go,” said Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons. “Trump always operates in a comparative context and he needs a villain. And Joe Biden is the villain that his voters remember most.”
Biden left office in November with approval ratings underwater, and some Democrats continue to blame him for Trump’s victory after his age and mental acuity became the dominant narrative around his reelection bid.
Meanwhile, a CBS News/YouGov poll out this week showed that Trump has positive approval ratings in the opening weeks of his second term.
The survey revealed that 53 percent of respondents approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, while 47 percent said they do not support it.
Even so, Democrats say Trump is using his jabs on Biden to distract from the flurry of actions he has taken in recent days to dismantle the government. It’s the same reason, they say, he is constantly on the airwaves or on social media.
Democratic strategist Tim Hogan said Trump sees Biden as a convenient scapegoat.
“Any problem he encounters — often of his own making — he reflexively blames on the previous administration to avoid accountability,” Hogan said. “It’s a selection strategy rooted in his grievance, but over time, it will wear thin as a tactic, especially as voters look for solutions rather than excuses.”
Democratic strategist Basil Smikle predicted that Trump will likely get some traction out of the Biden comparison for the next few months before it becomes stale.
“By summer, he will own this economy and this government and it will make the comparisons irrelevant,” Smikle said.
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