Trump's obsession: He can't quit bashing Biden
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Oliver Contreras/AFP and Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Joe Biden has left Washington, but he still seems to be living rent-free in Donald Trump's mind.
Why it matters: Trump has brought his grievance-laden playbook against Biden to the White House and frequently derides his Democratic rival — in speeches, executive orders, off-the-cuff comments and social media posts.
- Trump's criticisms follow a strategy he's used since he first took office in 2017: Accuse his predecessor of doing a terrible job (then it was Barack Obama, now Biden) and blame them for any problems or setbacks.
Driving the news: This time it began moments after Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20. With Biden sitting just a few feet away, Trump said in his inaugural speech that the outgoing president had left the country in "decline."
- Since then, Trump has issued dozens of executive orders, many of which he cast as remedies for problems he claimed Biden or his administration created.
- As investigators began looking into the deadly in-air collision near Reagan National Airport last week, Trump — without evidence — blamed the Biden administration's diversity programs for the crash.
- In a Truth Social post Sunday, Trump took aim again, announcing that he'd ordered airstrikes against the Islamic State in northern Somalia and accusing "Biden and his cronies" of not acting quickly enough to "get the job done."
That's just a sample of Trump's darts at Biden.
- He also trashed Biden's border policies as "stupid," and cast the former president as weak on everything from relations with China to disaster response and inflation.
Zoom in: It's not just Trump. His allies have made a sport of criticizing the Biden White House.
- Press secretary Karoline Leavitt last week attributed the increase in egg prices during Trump's first week in office to the Biden administration's "mass killing of more than 100 million chickens" amid concerns about bird flu.
- She also cast Biden as a president who slept on the job.
- Democrats counter that Trump's moves dismantling the federal government in D.C. threaten to become far more destructive than beneficial.
Between the lines: Trump and Biden, who was Obama's vice president, have had a bitter rivalry for years.
- Trump blames his many legal troubles on Biden and his administration's Justice Department.
- Even after Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and was replaced on the Democratic ticket by Kamala Harris, Trump continued to bash Biden.
What they're saying: "Anything bad that happens on your watch, you try to find someone else to blame, and Donald Trump has a good foil in Joe Biden," Arizona-based Republican political consultant Barrett Marson told Axios, referring to Biden's low favorability ratings.
- "Trump is untethered to facts and ... will blame Biden and Democrats for anything that goes wrong," Marson said.
- But he added that with Republicans' in full control of the federal government and the rapid pace at which Trump is dismantling many Biden administration policies, "he's going to run out of that excuse quickly."
Go deeper: Trump gets a jump on his presidency — with Biden's help
