While Donald Trump has repeatedly said “tariff” is the “most beautiful word in the dictionary,” there is another noun that has become just as prominent in the president’s vernacular.
Since his inauguration on January 20, Trump has mentioned former President Joe Biden, his family or administration at least 580 times in public remarks or on social media, according to an analysis by NBC News.
That is an average of more than six times a day, every day, since he commenced his second term. More than 90 days after leaving office, Biden appears to have left his mark on Trump’s subconscious.
At his inauguration alone, Trump mentioned Biden a dozen times, nearing half of the 29 references the Democrat made about his GOP foe in his first 100 days in office in 2021.
Trump, meanwhile, referred to Biden 16 times in one form or another in his 100-minute speech to a joint session of Congress last month.
A separate New York Times analysis found that Trump used the former president’s name more than “America” in his first 50 days in office.
And Trump appears willing to use any opportunity to mention his predecessor.
At the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, Trump referred to a viral 2022 moment when an aide dressed in a bunny costume ushered Biden away from the press mid-sentence.
“Do you remember the bunny with Joe Biden?” he said. “Do you remember when the bunny took Joe Biden out? He’s not taking Trump out.”
Speaking to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office in February about Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, Trump laid blame on Biden and said “he did a terrible, terrible job.”
Embroiled in the Signalgate security breach saga, which saw a journalist inadvertently invited to an group chat while top Trump officials discussed plans to bomb Houthis in Yemen, the president said: “Joe Biden should have done this attack on Yemen.”
And probed about his ability to stay up so late while on Air Force One in the early hours of April 13, Trump replied that “Biden was sleeping for 10 hours already.”
Trump isn’t the only person in the administration to fixate on the Democrat, however. So far, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has mentioned Biden 78 times in 16 briefings, including 37 times unprompted in her opening remarks, according to NBC News.
Other Cabinet members have equally followed suit.
There is much debate about whether Trump’s incessant Biden chatter is an all-consuming obsession or a political tactic that reminds voters that, not so long ago, they were unhappy with illegal migration and high prices.
“In MAGA land, Biden was a false president,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told NBC News. “And Trump is trying to keep banging that drum so he can drive that narrative into the history books.”
In a statement to the outlet, White House spokesperson Liz Huston criticized Biden and praised the work Trump has done moving on from his predecessor's administration.
“President Trump has spent the first three months of his presidency cleaning up the disasters created by Joe Biden and Making America Great Again,” she said.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the border is secure, inflation is cooling, jobs are up, and common sense is restored."
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