Hunter Biden says he won’t back down from cage fight with Don Jr. and Eric Trump
Former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden said he is “100% prepared” for a potential cage match with President Donald Trump’s sons.
On June 3, 2024, Hunter Biden sat in court facing federal firearms charges. His stepmother, former first lady Jill Biden, sat in the front row to show her support. It was her birthday.
He did not take the stand. Unlike some family members, the first lady also did not testify.
But two years later, it turns out both former President Joe Biden’s son and the first lady have a lot to say, and the internet has come for it.
Since first posting to X on May 19th, Hunter Biden has amassed more than 780,000 followers in just a few weeks.
The post, pinned to his profile, reads, “I’m Hunter Biden. You’ve never actually heard from me.” Meanwhile, Jill Biden’s memoir, View from the East Wing, was released on the eve of her birthday and topped the New York Times bestseller list.
Hunter Biden talks about Trump family and addiction
Hunter Biden, 56, was the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime, and was pardoned by his father a month before Joe Biden left office. He pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted of firearms-related charges.
When the X user said, “I’m sure you’re grateful for that pardon,” Hunter simply replied, “I’m sure you are.”
In X, he faced off against President Donald Trump, who introduced the viral “Where’s the Hunter?” During his 2019 campaign speech, he made a series of attacks to ridicule his business dealings in China and Ukraine. (The Trump campaign also sold T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase.) The younger Biden has questioned Trump’s sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, and their business operations. He is harshly critical of journalists.
But the post that got the most reaction about X was about his journey through recovery from crack cocaine addiction.
“Been clean and sober for almost 7 years. Not a victory lap. Just a fact. To those who are fighting right now: Be quiet. It’s not easy. Be quiet. When you get quiet, you see who you really are. That’s the part they can’t take away from you,” he said in his first post on the subject.
Reactions came from people across the political spectrum.
User ThePolitcialBlonde wrote, “We’re on opposite ends of the political spectrum, @HunterBiden.” “But as someone who lost a baby brother to heroin, I’ve seen firsthand how hard it can be. Well done. Well done for surviving.”
Some urged Biden to run for president. An X user asked what the slogan of the campaign would be.
“Let’s have another crack at Biden,” he replied.
Jill Biden wrote in her book that she regrets not discussing her addiction publicly when she was first lady, saying it was painful to even say the words.
While recording the audiobook, she says she had a hard time saying the line, “My son was a drug addict,” when she had to say it.
“It hurts,” she said in an interview on NBC’s “TODAY.” “I wish I had spoken out about my addiction, but going through it was really painful.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper doubts Jill Biden
CNN host Jake Tapper, who moderated the disastrous 2024 debate that ruined Biden’s reelection bid, called Jill Biden the “queen of inaction” in a video post shortly after her book was released on June 2.
Tapper disputed the former first lady’s assertion that if her husband had shown cognitive impairment, she and the president’s staff would not have hesitated to say so.
“It’s all very hard to believe, if not outright false,” Tapper said, based on behind-the-scenes interviews he gave.
In a June 3 post on X, Hunter Biden accused Tapper of ignoring the Trump family’s business and attacking Jill Biden.
“So let me be clear: Jake Tapper is focused on attacking my mother,” Hunter Biden wrote. “Jared and Ivanka are building a private island paradise on a reserve in Albania. Don Jr. is married to Epstein’s banker’s daughter, and a startup backed by his fund just secured a record $620 million loan from the Department of Defense. Eric is taking an Israeli drone company public for $1.5 billion in the middle of a war with Iran that no one wanted,” he wrote.
In another post, Biden mocked Tapper, likening him to the ignorant newscaster in the movie “Anchorman” who doesn’t pay attention to Trump’s frequent medical checkups and instead focuses on his mother.
“Mr. Trump has not been seen in public in eight days. This was after an unscheduled hospital visit because Mr. Trump ‘likes to get tested.'” Thankfully, Jake Tapper (as I like to call him – his contemporary Brick Tamland) is on the case, searching for clues in a book about his mother’s experience as first lady four years ago, he wrote.
President Trump was asked by Fox reporter Peter Doocy last week how he thought Hunter Biden would do in the 2028 Democratic primary.
In response, President Trump said, “The past has everything to do with winning elections.”
Biden quickly responded, “Wait…did I just say he had a checkered past? I have 28 felonies, six bankruptcies, and Epstein’s bromance doesn’t come close to his checkered past.”
He then turned his fire on Doocy, whom he described as a MAGA whisperer, writing, “I want @peterdouchey to ask the president when he gets his Hunter T-shirt royalty check. It’s been 4 years now and he keeps saying the check is in the mail.”
As for his presidential ambitions, Biden downplayed them when California Governor Gavin Newsom, widely considered the top 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, jokingly introduced Biden as “2028 Presidential Candidate Hunter Biden” on a June 12 podcast.
“Here’s the deal: I’m running, but only as vice president, because the truth of the matter is it’s much cooler in the vice president’s office. It’s a much easier job,” he said.
But back to X, he left behind a cryptic note.
“Let me just say…no Democrat has won the White House this century without electing Biden,” he wrote.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is USA TODAY’s White House correspondent. You can follow her at X @SwapnaVenugopal.
