Donald Trump is fighting grumpily for the presidency. Joe Biden, on the other hand, is happily putting on a Trump cap – self-ironic and conciliatory. Even opponents like that.
What is Joe Biden, 81, President of the United States, actually doing? He is standing in a fire station in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, grinning from ear to ear. A red “Trump 2024” cap is perched on his head like a giant, undersized tomato. The spectators are happy and applaud.
Is this really happening? The most powerful man in the world is posing with the cap of his (domestic) political arch-enemy? What is going on?
Joe Biden supports Donald Trump
The image of the visibly amused Democrat with Trump advertising naturally spread like wildfire. “Biden supports Trump,” often in a pose of great seriousness. Finally: doesn’t this unlikely twist fit seamlessly into this US election campaign, which is full of unlikely twists and turns?
61 days ago, on July 13, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt. All experts were certain afterward: these shots would decide the election in Trump’s favor. Just a week and a half later, on July 21, Democratic incumbent Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy. The race between two old men, which had been as good as decided, received a refreshing kick in the butt and turned the head of state, who had just been campaigning, into the lamest of all ducks.
Easy-going guy in a stiff president
Since then, Biden, the “friendly, older gentleman with a bad memory,” has enjoyed carte blanche. He continues to play a role in the election campaign. The race is close and there are still many people to be convinced of the Democrats. However, the team of his successor in the election campaign, Kamala Harris, is unsure whether Biden’s hand-shaking is more useful or more annoying. What is undisputed, however, is that the stiff-as-age president is still a laid-back guy.
“Scranton Joe” is one of his many nicknames – after his birthplace Scranton, a former industrial city. For many years of his political life, Biden toured the country in a half-chum, half-avuncular manner. He was usually close to the working class, but he was also always good with conservatives. Biden, with his friendly manner, was a great bringer. Which is why the “Trump hat incident” now in Shanksville, a four-hour drive from his birthplace, was one of those moments for which Joe Biden is most liked. Because he was simply Joe Biden.
The Cap of Unity
The event with the firefighters was held to commemorate the terrorist attacks of September 11th – a deeply traumatic event, but one that also brought Americans together. A video shows Biden standing next to a man wearing a Trump cap. They joke about their advanced age, and the president signs his autograph on one of his caps, which he wants to give to the Republican supporter. He agrees to the deal on the condition that Biden puts on his cap in return – “in the spirit of unity,” as the White House quotes him as saying.
And so it happens that Democrat and US President Joe Biden, wearing a red Trump cap, is smiling broadly into the cameras. The headdress looks unfortunate because he is wearing his own cap underneath. Did he know that these pictures would go around the world? Presumably, the 81-year-old is a professional. Will they harm him or help him? Maybe that’s the wrong question.
Because the reconciler Biden never had anything to do with this antagonistic way of thinking. And people see what they want to see anyway: his fans the funny old man, the Republicans the senile old man. Now that his career is coming to an end, Biden has so little to lose that in a difficult hour he can remind Americans of one of their best qualities: self-irony.
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Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
