Washington –
US President Joe Biden wants to win votes by causing some laughs at the expense of Donald Trump, unleashing ridicule with the aim of annoying the former president and reminding the country of its mistakes.
Like a comedian living up to his routine, the Democratic president has been testing and expanding his jokes in recent weeks. He began by criticizing the financial problems of his Republican opponent, and now Biden regularly mocks Trump’s coiffed hair, his pampered upbringing and his attempt to make a few extra dollars by selling a special edition of the Bible.
The 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, either trying to take the high road or getting down and dirty with Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
“This is an ongoing challenge,” said Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to former US President Barack Obama. Trump “is not someone who follows the rules. So it’s up to Biden to figure out how to adapt and respect the new rules of engagement.”
Until now, Biden has been trying to thread a delicate needle to boost his chances of a second term. She uses humor to paint Trump as a buffoon unworthy of the Oval Office, but the president stops short of turning the election into a laughing matter.
Sometimes you find that a few jokes can energize an audience even more than a major political victory and divert valuable attention from an opponent who otherwise hogs the spotlight even while stuck in a New York courtroom on his first day. criminal trial.
The latest example came at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night. After years of Trump constantly accusing Biden of being “sleepy” and mocking his age (Biden is 81, Trump is 77), Biden returned the insult after Trump appeared to fall asleep in court.
Biden nicknamed his rival “Mr Sleepy” and added: “I kind of like that. I can use it again.”
“Of course, the 2024 elections are in full swing and yes, age is an issue,” he said. “I’m a grown man competing against a six-year-old.”
But jokes at the annual gala event, which also features a professional comedian (this year it was Colin Jost of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”), are nothing new. The real meat of Biden’s routine comes during campaign speeches in which he spends a few moments criticizing Trump between recitations of policy proposals and legislative achievements.
“Remember when I was trying to deal with COVID? He suggested: “Inject some bleach into your vein,” Biden told a union Wednesday, describing Trump’s guidance from the White House during the pandemic. “He failed. “It all went to his hair.”
In Tampa, Florida, the day before, he attacked Trump over the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down abortion protections, with three Trump-nominated justices voting in the majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and then moved on to the former president’s sale of a $60 Bible that read “God Bless the USA.”
“He described Dobbs’ decision as a ‘miracle,'” Biden said of Trump. “Maybe it comes from that Bible he’s trying to sell. Oh. “I almost wanted to buy one just to see what the hell is in it.”
Biden rarely references Trump’s court cases, 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.
“Just 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 your help. I’m overwhelmed with debt.’ I’m completely wiped out.’ I had to say, ‘Donald, I can’t help you.'”
Even when Biden tries his hand at humor, he rarely strays away from talking politics. He likes to point out that he signed a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill after his opponent failed to do so despite repeatedly holding events at the White House to drum up support for an idea that never materialized. .
“You promised an ‘Infrastructure Week’ every week for four years and never built anything,” Biden told a group of laughing union members this month.
The dilemma is that Trump, who tells voters that the entire American political system is hopelessly corrupt, can get away with insults that would be counterproductive to other candidates. During his rallies, Trump imitates Biden as a weak old man who can’t find the stairs after giving a short speech, and calls the president “crooked” and a “demented tyrant.”
The Republican’s campaign said the insults will only intensify as Biden tries to give them a taste of their own medicine.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Biden is “tapping his feet like a short-circuited Roomba,” referring to the robot vacuum cleaner, without addressing the “runaway border” and “rampant inflation.”
Rick Tyler, who worked on the 2016 presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said voters have a double standard because expectations are different for Trump, who first gained fame as a real estate developer and TV star. reality. Television program “The Apprentice”.
“Celebrities really don’t 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 team.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., found this out the hard way in the 2016 Republican primary. After Rubio joked about Trump having “small hands,” suggesting another part of him was small, too, Trump responded saying, “I guarantee there is 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 in her 2016 White House bid, said Trump can encourage his opponents to “communicate on their terms, not yours.”
“It’s the kind of thing where you have to keep a balance,” he said. “You could spend all day just answering.”
But if Trump’s humor is direct, Biden sometimes tries to make the most of it by being subtle. During a stop in Pittsburgh earlier this month, Biden spoke elliptically about Trump’s trial, betting that his audience was already in on the joke.
Trump, he said, is “a little busy right now.”