The GOP frontrunner has said the president indulged in “hate-filled” rhetoric as he repeatedly berated his election rival
Former President and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump during a Super Tuesday election night watch party at Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida on March 5, 2024. © AFP / CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP
The State of the Union address that US President Joe Biden delivered on Thursday night was “worst… ever made,” his predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump, has claimed. The Republican, who will go head to head with the incumbent in November’s presidential election, also accused Biden of “tremendous misrepresentation and lies” in his speech.
During his 68-minute address, the Democrat repeatedly tore into Trump without mentioning him by name; instead referring to him as “my predecessor.” The 81-year-old also repeatedly raised his voice, comparing himself to President Franklin Roosevelt in January 1941.
In a string of posts on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump characterized his political opponent’s delivery as “angry, polarizing, and hate-filled,” describing it as an “embarrassment to our country.”
According to the GOP frontrunner, Biden’s “angry” tone is a “trait of people who know they are “losing it.”
The Republican also dismissed the president’s allegations that he had “bowed down” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead, it was the current head of state who had become a “puppet for Putin and Xi, and virtually every other leader,” Trump claimed.
In his address, Biden stated that his purpose was to “wake up this Congress” – an apparent reference to Republican representatives blocking his massive foreign aid package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine. The president claimed his opponents in Congress “want us to walk away from our leadership in the world.”
The Democrat also touched on the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riots, warning that while the “insurrectionists” had failed, “the threat remains and democracy must be defended.” Biden accused Trump and other Republicans of seeking to “bury the truth” about those events.
Amid widespread concerns over his old age and whether he is fit for office, the incumbent tried to paint his advanced years as an advantage, saying: “when you get to my age, certain things become clearer than ever before.”
During the Super Tuesday primaries earlier this week, Trump swept 14 out of 15 states at stake, securing 995 Republican convention delegates. His only opponent Nikki Haley dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination soon thereafter.
Biden also came out on top in the Democratic primaries, paving the way for a rematch between the two political nemeses in November.
