President Joe Biden took direct aim this week at his likely 2024 GOP opponent and the man he has previously referred to as “the former guy.” This time Biden used the more eloquent “my predecessor” to describe Donald Trump, but that was where the respectful tone ended.
Celebrating ‘Infrastructure Week’, Biden taunted Trump in a tweet that characterized Trump’s efforts to enhance America’s infrastructure while president as a “punchline.” Laughable, a joke.
Seeking to illustrate a contrast between his own administration and Trump’s, Biden wrote: “Under my predecessor, Infrastructure Week was a punchline. On my watch, we’re making Infrastructure Decade a headline.”
The President added the claim his administration had “already announced over 25,000 infrastructure projects in 4,500 towns across America.” (An accompanying White House doc shows an infrastructure funding map.)
Under my predecessor, Infrastructure Week was a punchline.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 27, 2023
On my watch, we’re making Infrastructure Decade a headline.
We’ve already announced over 25,000 infrastructure projects in 4,500 towns across America.
The Biden dig at Trump is pointed, as Biden knows, given Trump’s background and pride points. (Trump supporters in the comments weren’t laughing.)
Former President Trump sold himself to America in large part as a builder — potentially of a southern border wall. A successful real estate developer who had built skyscrapers in complicated places like New York City, Trump on the 2016 campaign trail once received applause from a gathering of construction workers after boasting about how great it would be to have someone in the White House who “actually” knows what “rebar” is.
Biden himself didn’t invent the idea that Infrastructure Week was a joke. The idea of Infrastructure Week as a joke originated during the Trump administration, during which Infrastructure Weeks were announced frequently and headlines like this were common: “Infrastructure Week Has Become A Running Joke.”
As The Week wrote in 2019: “The words ‘Infrastructure Week’ have become synonymous with any unsuccessful or clumsy attempts to get an actual policy off the ground, as well as with the [Trump] administration’s odd tendency of pushing infrastructure whenever unfavorable headlines start appearing in the news.”
