Trump’s favourite 2026 campaign target is Biden, nearly 900 mentions and counting
AI generated
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target → generate → ?
US President Donald Trump has invoked Joe Biden’s name almost 900 times in 2026, a Reuters review shows, keeping his predecessor at the centre of debate as Republicans fight to hold their fragile grip on Congress in November’s midterm elections.
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Republicans → invoke → elections
Trump has made Biden, a Democrat, his political target on average three times a day across speeches, comments and Truth Social postings, blaming him for problems ranging from inflation and immigration to munitions shortages, even as the former president, 83 and battling Stage 4 cancer, has largely withdrawn from public life.
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president → make → life
The tactic reflects Trump’s effort to keep Americans focused on the perceived failures of the previous administration rather than on voters’ concerns about his own presidency with just six weeks left until the Nov 3 midterm elections.
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tactic → reflect → elections
Democrats “delivered you four years of disaster, bedlam and death under sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump, 80, told the party faithful at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on Sept 9.
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Trump → deliver → Sept
“Donald Trump always needs a foil and it’s better to have a single person than a party,” said Republican strategist Ryan Williams.
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Williams → need → party
“He’s done this throughout his time in office.
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He → do → office
He can use it to try to deflect any problems he’s currently facing.”
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he → use → problems
The Reuters review examined Trump’s references to Biden from January, when the 2026 election cycle began taking shape.
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cycle → examine → shape
The findings underscore Trump’s effort to keep the focus on Biden as his own approval ratings have sagged, the war with Iran has dragged on, and the cost of living remains stubbornly high.
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cost → underscore → living
Since Jan 1, Trump has called out Biden by name at least 890 times, spanning almost 200 events and interviews and around 190 Truth Social posts in 2026, the Reuters review found.
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review → call → 2026
He invoked Biden at least 210 times on the economy, 168 times on immigration and 138 times on foreign policy and national security matters, while also blaming him for a range of other domestic issues.
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He → invoke → issues
He has criticised Biden at events as varied as first lady Melania Trump’s movie premiere, the National Prayer Breakfast and the traditional Easter Egg Roll on the White House South Lawn.
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He → criticise → Lawn
During July’s NATO meeting in Turkey, Trump set a record for the number of mentions in a single day – 16.
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Trump → set → day
He blamed Biden for a shortage of military munitions, the cost of housing and denigrating the steel industry.
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He → blame → industry
While presidents often blame their predecessors – as Biden did Trump – Trump’s focus on Biden 20 months into his second term stands out for both its persistence and volume.
“Joe Biden is the worst president in American history, and President Trump has spent every day cleaning up his mess and making the United States of America stronger than ever before,” said Olivia Wales, a White House spokeswoman defending Trump’s repeated references to his predecessor.
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Wales → blame → predecessor
T.J. Ducklo, a spokesman for Biden, declined to comment for this story.
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Ducklo → decline → story
Meghan Hays, a former senior Biden White House official, however, attacked what she called Trump’s “obsession.”
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she → attack → what
“Nine hundred mentions in less than a year isn’t governing, it’s an obsession.
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it → govern → year
Joe Biden beat him once and Trump still hasn’t gotten over it.
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Trump → beat → it
He’s more focused on re-litigating 2020 than lowering the cost of gas and groceries for the American people,” she said, referring to Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely claims was stolen from him.
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Trump → ’ → him
Rowing back on economy
In February, Trump told an interviewer he owned the economy.
Now, with public opinion polls showing Americans souring on Trump’s economic stewardship, Trump is blaming affordability issues on Biden.
“I hope everyone realises that price increases throughout America were caused by Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, not by ‘TRUMP,’” the president posted on Truth Social last week.
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president → row → Social
Some Trump supporters at the midterm convention in Dallas told Reuters they believed that Biden was to blame for inflation 20 months after he left office.
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he → tell → office
Opinion polls, however, suggest it is Trump who draws most Americans’ ire over inflation.
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who → suggest → inflation
Inflation soared to more than 9 per cent during Biden’s presidency, fuelled in part by Covid-19 pandemic disruption to supply chains, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Biden administration’s spending to stimulate the Covid-19-racked economy.
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Inflation → soar → economy
Trump won election mainly on his promise to bring down prices, but they have remained stubbornly high, in part because of his war on Iran.
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they → win → Iran
Averaging 4.95 per cent a month during Biden’s four years, year-on-year inflation has averaged 2.94 per cent a month since Trump took office and stood at 3.4 per cent in August.
“Politics is always about the future and never about the past, so blaming your predecessor does not work.
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blaming → average → predecessor
He must defend his own record to help his party,” said veteran Republican strategist Charlie Black, who has sometimes criticised Trump.
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who → defend → Trump
After the economy, immigration is the issue on which Trump most frequently invokes Biden.
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Trump → invoke → Biden
As Trump’s expanded deportation campaign drew nationwide criticism and protests in 2026, he repeatedly sought to shift responsibility to his predecessor, arguing that Biden’s policies had enabled record levels of illegal immigration along the US-Mexico border.
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policies → expand → border
After federal immigration agents killed two American citizens protesting in Minnesota in January, for example, Trump blamed the “open border policies of Biden” for “all of the time that we spend talking about Minnesota.”
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we → kill → Minnesota
The president talks about the high level of border crossings under Biden and the tougher Trump administration immigration policies so much that he recently acknowledged that his White House advisers were trying to get him off the topic.
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advisers → talk → topic
“Even my speechwriters, they say, ‘Sir, nobody wants to hear about the border anymore.
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nobody → say → border
You’ve done it,’” Trump recounted in the Oval Office in August.
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Trump → do → August
“Biden couldn’t do it,” he added.
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he → do → it
Under pressure to end the war on Iran he started nearly seven months ago, Trump has invoked Biden at least 37 times.
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Trump → end → Biden
He accuses his predecessor of not having been aggressive enough against Tehran during his 2021-2025 presidency and of “creating a monster with Iran” in 2015 with the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by then-President Barack Obama while Biden was vice- president.
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Biden → accuse → Obama
Biden’s policy toward Iran was to increase economic pressure on Tehran, a position Trump has now adopted amid sporadic clashes with Iran.
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Trump → increase → Iran
Trump initially denied media reports that US stockpiles of missiles and interceptors were dwindling rapidly in the war, but in May, he started blaming Biden for the shortages.
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he → deny → shortages
“I’d like to have more (munitions) to be honest, but so much was given to Ukraine by Biden,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on July 27.
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Trump → like → July
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
