Former President Donald Trump blasted President Biden in his response to the State of the Union address and vowed to “end the destruction of our country” if reelected to the White House in 2024.
Trump, 76, called his two-minute-long rebuttal to Biden’s 72-minute-long speech the “real state of the union,” and he insincerely gave the 80-year-old president credit for ending the speech “far stronger than he began” – a possible reference to Biden incorrectly calling Sen. Chuck Schumer the Senate minority leader.
“Look, he worked hard tonight, it’s not a natural thing for him, it never was, and never will be, but you’ve got to give him credit for trying. I disagree with him on most of his policies, but he put into words what he felt, and he ended up the evening far stronger than he began. Give him credit for that,” Trump said in a Truth Social post where he shared his official rebuttal.
In the pre-taped video clip, Trump slammed Biden’s record on border security, crime, the economy, free speech, foreign policy, and other issues.
“Over the past two years under Biden, millions and millions of illegal aliens from 160 different countries have stormed across our southern border. Drug cartels are now raking in billions of dollars from smuggling poison to kill our people and to kill our children, savage killers, rapists and violent criminals are being released from jail to continue their crime wave,” Trump argues, before shifting to economic issues.
“Biden and the radical Democrats have wasted trillions of dollars and caused the worst inflation in half a century. Real wages are down 21 months in a row. Gas prices have soared. And are now going up much higher than even before and the typical American family is paying $2,200 in increased energy and food costs each year,” Trump said.
Next, the former president alleged that Biden has “weaponized” the Justice Department to target Republicans, such as himself, and that the Biden administration is seeking to “indoctrinate and mutilate” children and is hurtling toward another world war.
“Joe Biden’s weaponized Justice Department – and I’m a victim of it – is persecuting his political opponents. His administration is waging war on free speech. And on top of all of that he’s the most corrupt president in American history. And it’s not even close,” Trump said.
To close his rebuttal, Trump offered an optimistic vision for what the US would be like under a second Trump term.
“[W]e are going to reverse every single crisis, calamity, and disaster that Joe Biden has created. I am running for president to end the destruction of our country and to complete the unfinished business of making America great again. We will make our country better than ever before, and we will always put America first,” Trump’s short speech concluded.
Trump announced the launch of his 2024 White House bid in November and is the only declared GOP presidential candidate so far, though former Ambassador to the Union Nations Nikki Haley is expected to join the fray later this month.
Trump’s former press secretary, Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, delivered the official GOP response to Biden’s State of the Union and made no references to Trump by name.