Joe Biden called Donald Trump a “loser” in a combative speech on Saturday that referenced his successor’s attempt to rebuild Washington, D.C., to portray him as incompetent, corrupt and vain.
He made the remarks during the keynote address at a gala in Hanover, Maryland, hosted by the state Democratic Party, which hopes to help wrest control of Congress from Trump and his Republican allies during the midterm elections in November.
Biden’s 10-minute speech touched on Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom, a court order to remove his name after he added it to the faรงade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, his plans for a triumphal arch and the algae bloom that undermined his $14.7 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool.
But “it’s not just his vanity projects” that are a disgrace in the nation’s capital, Biden said on Live! Maryland Casino and Hotel. He also addressed the administration’s efforts to compensate those who were convicted, then pardoned by the president, for their roles in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump’s first term in the Oval Office ended in defeat by Biden.
“Wow!” Biden said, listing it all. “What a loser.”
In particular, the reflective pool project, in which the federal government awarded a $1.7 million no-bid contract for a filtration system to a Trump donor who is a neighbor of the president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, “reflects something even worse than the narcissism and incompetence at the heart of this administration,” Biden continued.
โThis is corruptionโcorruption, brazen, blatant corruption,โ Biden said. โCorruption on a scale never before seen under any administration in American history.โ
Biden also criticized Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin after the Russian leader’s forces invaded Ukraine in 2022. Biden accused Trump of โdeliberately distorting and destroyingโ the NATO military alliance, which many say was undermined by the war that the United States and Israel launched in Iran in late February.
โHe has weakened our position in the world more than any other president in history,โ Biden, 83, said of Trump, 80.
Biden’s comments on Saturday came exactly two years after a disastrous televised debate with Trump – his merciless critic – that preceded his decision to withdraw from the November 2024 presidential race.
Trump subsequently won a second term in the White House, defeating Biden’s backed candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
It also comes at a time when his family has become noticeably more visible on the political scene since he left office.
For example, former first lady Jill Biden published her memoir, โThe View from the East Wing,โ on June 2. She appeared at an event that day to promote the book and, among other things, said that her husband’s cancer diagnosis in May 2025 “really puts life in perspective.”
Meanwhile, Biden’s son Hunter has gained a following with self-deprecating social media posts on topics including politics, mental health and addiction recovery – something that may have been unexpected when his father pardoned him for convictions on federal gun and tax charges in the twilight of his presidency.
Before Saturday’s gala, Biden struck a more traditional tone in a statement attributed to him ahead of his speech. โI have always believed that democracy is not a spectator sport,โ Biden said in a statement, before praising political organizers for โknocking on doors, making phone calls, and spending time that no one sees but that benefits everyone.โ