Donald Trump’s preoccupation with Joe Biden has appeared unhealthy for quite some time. On Memorial Day, for example, the Republican president promoted an online item that described his Democratic predecessor, who had recently been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, as “a decrepit corpse.”
On Friday, the incumbent went further, urging people not to feel sympathy for Biden as he combats cancer — “because he’s vicious.” His claim was rooted in the absurd Republican conspiracy theory that Biden personally executed a secret plot that culminated in Trump’s 2023 criminal indictments.
But as it turns out, the day after the Republican president made these public comments at an Oval Office event, Trump apparently took an interest in an even more unhinged conspiracy theory. NBC News reported:
President Donald Trump on Saturday night reposted a baseless claim on Truth Social that former President Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced with clones or robots. The original post, made by an anonymous Truth Social user who often spreads outlandish claims, suggested that Biden was replaced with “clones, doubles” and “robotic engineered soulless mindless entities.”
Periodically, the political world ponders a parlor game of sorts, based on an unfortunate question: “What’s the most bananas idea Donald Trump has ever endorsed, promoted or amplified?” The competition has long been fierce.
Indeed, just in recent weeks, the current president has used his social media platform to amplify all kinds of truly bizarre claims and arguments, ranging from targeting Barack Obama with a military tribunal, accusing federal judges of committing acts “tantamount to treason and sedition,” to suggestions that Trump should be chosen to serve as the pope.
But for those who partake in this little parlor game, there’s clearly a new frontrunner.
On Saturday night, Trump used his social media platform to amplify an item that claimed that Biden was secretly “executed in 2020,” at which point the public saw “clones,” “doubles” and “robotic engineered soulless mindless entities” that appeared to be the Delaware Democrat.
To be sure, the Republican didn’t personally write this message, but he nevertheless thought it’d be a good idea to amplify the missive, bringing it to the attention of his millions of online followers.
As for why in the world Trump did this, The New York Times reported, “The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the post about Mr. Biden, whom Mr. Trump has targeted for criticism almost daily since the start of his second term.”
Whether the incumbent president realizes this or not, he’s gradually discrediting his own weird campaign against his predecessor. In recent weeks, fueled in part by the book “Original Sin” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, Trump has argued — publicly and in apparent seriousness — that the entire Biden administration was “illegal,” because the Democrat was so incapacitated that his presidency was reduced to “autopen.” But if the goal is to reinforce concerns about Biden’s mental health and acuity, Trump has it backwards. Consider what this story would look like if their situations were reversed. Imagine Biden were in the White House right now, and he decided to use his social media account to amplify a message that accused Trump of being dead and replaced by robotic clones. I suspect that if the Democrat were to do this, there would be widespread concern that the president had gone completely around the bend. And yet, here we are. For those concerned about elderly presidents and their cognitive abilities, there’s one key truth that shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle: Biden isn’t the one amplifying a message about his former rival secretly being a dead robot.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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