It feels like a lifetime since Joe Biden was in the Oval Office, such is the turmoil and transformation unleashed since he went home to Delaware.
But one person in Washington never stops obsessing about the 46th president — his predecessor and successor.
Donald Trump rarely appears in public without complaining about Biden’s policies or flinging an insult at his mental or physical capacity.
His obsession betrays deep personal and political antipathy and spite towards a predecessor who has left the political stage. It’s also built on a foundation of Biden’s failures, especially over a surge of migrants across the southern border and a legacy of elevated consumer prices.
Yet Trump’s own deteriorating political position raises questions about the long-term viability of his all Biden, all the time strategy. After all, the former president has run his political race. Trump is now in power. And voters still aren’t happy.
“We inherited a total mess from the Biden administration,” Trump said Monday, opening a forum on his $12 billion bailout for farmers. His own tariff war with China made the rescue necessary — but Trump blamed Biden for agriculture’s woes.
It’s not just farms. Everything’s Biden’s fault, according to Trump.
Trouble in the auto industry? Blame Biden, as Trump did last week, saying he was officially terminating his predecessor’s “ridiculously burdensome” fuel efficiency standards introduced to battle climate change — a crisis the current president ignores.
What about the war in Ukraine that Trump promised to end in 24 hours? That’s Biden’s fault too, Trump says, as Russia would never have invaded in 2022 had he still been in office. “It was Joe Biden’s war, not my war,” Trump told “60 Minutes” in November.
The president has been taking heat because of the affordability crisis. But he insists Biden caused it. “I inherited the worst inflation in history,” he said, falsely, last week at a Cabinet meeting. “There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything.” Biden’s name came up more than 30 times, showing that Trump’s subordinates know there’s one sure way to please the boss: blame his predecessor.
