While President Joe Biden and the White House prepare to focus Democrats’ 2024 State of the Union address on abortion, child manufacturing technology, and “threats to democracy,” former President Donald Trump released a “prebuttal” to “Joe Biden’s sad excuse for a State of the Union address.” It eviscerated his Democrat opponent for deliberately failing to address voters’ deep concerns about the U.S. border and economy.
Biden and Trump both just wrapped up dueling visits to the ravaged border, so they are no strangers to its insanity. Yet Trump is the one who made the invasion the center of his pre-SOTU pitch to voters.
Biden may briefly bring up the border to take credit for what the Associated Press called “tougher migration rules” or to bash Republicans for refusing to pass Democrats’ “atrocious” amnesty bill. But it’s the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who dared to mention the consequences of a record-breaking influx of illegal border crossers to voters on Thursday.
“Over the past three years, Biden has actively aided and abetted the importation of millions and millions of illegal alien migrants and resettled them into your communities. At any time during the past three years, crooked Joe Biden — and he is crooked as you can be and the most incompetent president we’ve ever had — could have called off the invasion, but to this is keeping order of a little bit, and illegal aliens pouring into the country,” Trump said.
Trump’s border messaging resonates with voters, a majority of whom say the invasion is their top priority heading into the 2024 election. His determination to pin the dismantling of “the safest border in the history of our country” on “Crooked Joe and his radical left lunatics” also strikes a chord with voters, 56 percent of whom don’t approve of Biden’s performance.
“What’s happened now is a horror show. Our country is being laughed at all over the world,” Trump said.
Trump also took aim at Biden over attempts to downplay the effects of record-high prices and claims voters are misremembering the economic state under Trump. Despite polling showing pocketbook pressures have negatively affected voters’ opinions of Democrats for years, the White House continually insists that families struggling to afford groceries, gas, and other necessities have Biden to thank for “just a little bit of leftover money.”
“Joe Biden talking about shrinkinflation — the term he uses — is one of the most ridiculous things this country has ever seen,” Trump said. “Shrinkflation is just another way of saying inflation. It means that you’re losing a lot of money because these people don’t know what they’re doing.”
Trump blamed not only Biden but Democrats and the “radical left Marxists, fascists and communists and socialists” in their ranks for the decline of the country over the last four years.
“His party looted trillions of dollars from you and spent it on illegal aliens and the green new scam, triggering the highest inflation in many, many decades. If your packages are getting smaller, that’s the reason why,” Trump said.
Biden doesn’t just refuse to read the room on what matters to voters. He insists their thoughts about the border, inflation, and everything else are wrong.
Even if he gets through Thursday night’s address without wandering off stage or gaffing, something Americans don’t necessarily have the confidence he has the capacity to do, Biden won’t make voters feel seen and understood. Just like previous SOTU speeches, he will leave Americans to grapple with garbled phrases, blatant lies, and smears about half of the country.
