WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden wants to win votes by making laughs at Donald Trump’s expense, unleashing mockery in an effort to get under the former president’s thin skin and remind the country of his mistakes.
Like a comedian perfecting his routine, the Democratic president has been testing and multiplying his jokes for several weeks. It began with criticism of his Republican opponent’s financial problems, and now Biden regularly mocks Trump’s combed hair, pampered upbringing and attempt to make a few extra dollars by selling a special edition of the Bible.
These jokes are the latest attempt to crack the code on how to respond to Trump, whose own insult comedy has redrawn the boundaries of what is acceptable in modern politics. Few have had much luck, whether they’re trying to take the high road or getting down and dirty with Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.
“It’s a constant challenge,” said Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama. Trump is “not someone who plays by the rules.” It is therefore up to Biden to figure out how to adapt and respect the new rules of engagement.”
So far, Biden has attempted to thread a delicate needle to increase his chances of securing a second term. He uses humor to portray Trump as a buffoon unworthy of the Oval Office, but the president fails to turn the election into a laughing matter.
Sometimes he discovers that a few jokes can energize an audience even more than a major political victory and draw valuable attention away from an opponent who would otherwise take center stage, even if he’s stuck in a room. hearing in New York for his first criminal trial.
The latest example came at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday evening. After years of Trump constantly calling Biden “sleepy” and mocking his age (Biden is 81, Trump 77), Biden returned the insult after Trump appeared to doze off in court.
Biden nicknamed his rival “Sleepy Don,” adding: “I like that.” I might use it again.
“Of course, the 2024 elections are in full swing and yes, age is an issue,” he said. “I’m an adult running against a 6-year-old.”
But jokes at the annual black-tie event, which also features a professional comedian (this year it was Colin Jost of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”), are nothing new. The real heart of Biden’s routine comes during campaign speeches in which he spends a few moments digging into Trump between stories of policy proposals and legislative accomplishments.
“Remember when he was trying to deal with COVID? He suggested: inject a little bleach into your vein,” Biden told a union on Wednesday, describing Trump’s advice from the White House during the pandemic. “He missed. It all went into his hair.
The day before, in Tampa, Florida, he attacked Trump over the Supreme Court decision that struck down abortion protections — with three Trump-appointed justices voting in the majority of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – and then turned to peddling the former president. a “God Bless the United States” Bible for $60.
“He described the Dobbs decision as a ‘miracle,’” Biden said of Trump. “Maybe it comes from the Bible he’s trying to sell. Wow. I almost wanted to buy one just to see what was inside.
Biden rarely references Trump’s trials, but jokes about financial problems that began shortly after the former president was ordered to pay $454 million in a civil case in New York.
“The other day,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Dallas last month, “a defeated-looking guy came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, I need for your help. I’m crushed by debt. I had to say, “Donald, I can’t help you.”
Even when Biden dabbles in humor, he rarely strays from talking about politics. He likes to point out that he signed a bipartisan trillion-dollar infrastructure bill — after his opponent failed to do so despite repeatedly holding White House events to drum up support for an idea which never materialized.
“He promised ‘Infrastructure Week’ every week for four years and never built anything,” Biden told a group of laughing union activists this month.
The dilemma is that Trump, who tells voters that the entire American political system is hopelessly corrupt, can get away with insulting that would backfire on other candidates. At his rallies, Trump impersonates Biden as a weak old man who can’t find the stairs after giving a short speech, and he calls the president “crooked” and a “crazy tyrant.”
The Republican campaign said the insults would only intensify as Biden tried to give them a taste of their own medicine.
Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, said Biden was “moving his feet like a short-circuited Roomba,” referring to the robot vacuum cleaner, while failing to address the “uncontrollable border” and ” galloping inflation.
Rick Tyler, who worked on the 2016 presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said voters are applying double standards because expectations are different for Trump, who first rose to fame as as a real estate developer and reality TV star. TV show “The Apprentice”.
“Celebrities don’t really have standards, and Trump is on that path,” Tyler said. For a politician taking on Trump, “it’s like trying to play a sport with the wrong equipment.”
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, found this out the hard way during the 2016 Republican primary. After Rubio joked that Trump had “small hands” – suggesting another part of him was small also – Trump walked back saying, “I guarantee you there’s no problem.”
“No one has ever beaten Trump by getting in the ring with him,” said Alex Conant, communications director for Rubio’s campaign.
Karen Finney, who advised Democrat Hillary Clinton during her 2016 White House campaign, said Trump can encourage his opponents to “communicate on his terms, not yours.”
“It’s the kind of thing where you have to find a balance,” she said. “You could spend all day just responding.”
But if Trump’s humor is direct, Biden sometimes tries to get the most out of it by remaining subtle. During a stop in Pittsburgh earlier this month, Biden spoke elliptically about Trump’s trial, betting his audience was already in on the joke.
Trump, he said, is “a little busy right now.”
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