President Biden went to former President Trump’s territory in a swing through South Florida on Tuesday to rake in campaign cash, using the trip as another opportunity to warn of the risks of putting his predecessor back in the White House.
It was clear from Biden’s arrival at the West Palm Beach airport that he was in Trump’s domain: Air Force One taxied past Trump’s personal plane on the runway, and Biden’s motorcade was greeted by dozens of Trump supporters who lined the streets with anti-Biden signage.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is in Palm Beach, and one of his golf courses is located in Jupiter, where Biden attended his first fundraiser of the day.
“You are the reason I am president. You’re the reason Kamala Harris is a historic vice president, and you’re the reason Donald Trump’s the defeated president. You’re the reason we’re gonna make him a loser again,” Biden told donors in Jupiter.
Biden has gone directly after Trump in recent weeks, blasting his predecessor’s falsehoods about the 2020 election, his inaction during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and taking aim at Trump’s economic record.
The president noted Trump is the “only president other than Herbert Hoover” who left office with fewer jobs in the economy than when they were sworn in, and Biden took aim at Trump for recent comments in which he said he hoped the economy crashed before the end of the year so it wouldn’t potentially happen under his watch.
“He knows that while it’s good for America, it’s bad for him politically,” Biden said.
Trump is the clear front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, having won the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. He is leading his lone remaining primary rival, Nikki Haley, by double digits in her home state of South Carolina and in other upcoming early primary states.
The former president also appears to have an edge over Biden in polling in key swing states, ahead of a likely rematch. Recent polls out of Georgia, Michigan and Arizona have shown Trump with a narrow lead over the incumbent, while Biden leads his predecessor in Pennsylvania, according to recent surveys there.
Biden told donors Tuesday he believes Democrats can flip Florida, an unlikely battleground state where Trump beat Biden in 2020 by about 400,000 votes.
Biden’s fundraising swing into Florida comes as his campaign has assembled a formidable war chest to take on Trump. The campaign entered 2024 with $117 million on hand after raising more than $97 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Trump, meanwhile, has still focused much of his attention and campaign firepower on Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations who has insisted she has no imminent plans to drop out of the primary.
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