Hunter Biden charms his trolls
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photos: Getty Images
Hunter Biden is staging one of the most unlikely reinventions in politics, attempting to charm and disarm the internet trolls who feasted on the darkest moments of his life.
Why it matters: Former President Biden's 56-year-old son spent years as the ultimate MAGA villain, staying largely silent as his addiction, legal troubles and personal life were used as a cudgel against his father's presidency.
- Now seven years sober, Hunter Biden has re-emerged with a raw, self-deprecating candor that is drawing grudging respect — and even empathy — from some of his former tormentors.
Zoom in: Biden's unlikely charm offensive began last month with a nearly two-hour interview with Candace Owens, the conservative podcaster and conspiracy theorist who had spent years mocking his addiction.
- The surprisingly warm conversation began with an olive branch: "I've heard you call me a crackhead many times," Biden told Owens. "And the truth of it is, I was a crackhead."
- Owens, citing addiction in her own family, apologized and admitted to treating Biden as a "caricature" rather than a person. "It means the world," an emotional Biden replied.
This week, Biden took that humility to X, where he's begun directly engaging critics and trolls with the same unflinching honesty and dark humor.
- When one user accused him of being the mystery culprit who left a bag of cocaine at the White House in 2023, Biden shot back: "It most definitely was not. I would never have forgotten my drugs."
- When a MAGA account said she'd rather "live under a rock than smoke it," Biden replied: "Me too. It was awful." Her tone softened: "Glad you're off that stuff. Hope you stay clean. You deserve a better life than you were living."
Between the lines: Biden's softer public image has come with a sharp political edge.
- He has used his own scandals as a populist contrast against Trumpworld — arguing that MAGA spent years obsessing over a supposed "Biden crime family" while ignoring the Trump family's profiteering.
- In the Owens interview, Hunter portrayed his father as an outsider to elite corruption, saying Joe Biden was "never part of the Epstein class" and never turned public office into a personal business opportunity.
- On X, he has attacked CNN's Jake Tapper — co-author of "Original Sin," the bestseller on Joe Biden's decline — for panning Jill Biden's new memoir while, in Hunter's telling, giving Trump and his family a pass. (Disclosure: "Original Sin" was co-authored by Axios reporter Alex Thompson.)
The other side: Not everyone is buying the reinvention.
- Much of MAGA world remains unmoved, with prominent influencers arguing that Biden owning his addiction does nothing to answer the corruption questions they've long raised.
- Some critics argue the Owens détente came at a cost: To win her over, Biden indulged her conspiracy theories — about Charlie Kirk's killing, about Trump's assassination attempts, about Israel's influence over America — and bonded over a shared sense of elite victimhood.
The bottom line: No one seems more amused by Hunter Biden's new viral fame than Hunter Biden.
- "WTF timeline are we on," he posted Thursday after someone called him "the MAGA whisperer" — a title he said he would "gladly take."
- He went on to accuse the "Epstein Elite Oligarch class" of deliberately dividing Americans, before delivering a closing manifesto:
- "Love your neighbor. Be yourself. Radical honesty. No f*cks given, no f*cks taken. Everything else is just noise."
