White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday drew a hard line against quickly blaming the government in the midst of a tragedy – in this case, the deadly floods in Texas.
“Many Democrat elected officials are trying to turn this into a political game; it is not,” Leavitt said, amid suggestions linking the tragedy to Trump’s cuts to the National Weather Service.
She added: “I just do think those comments are depraved and despicable, especially when so many Americans are mourning the loss of their children.”
Members of the media raise their hands to ask questions, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday. – Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Less than 24 hours before Leavitt’s comments, though, it was her boss, Trump, who was levying blame – not on the incumbent government, but the previous one.
“If you look at that water situation, that was really the Biden setup,” Trump said.
Trump quickly clarified that he wasn’t actually blaming Biden – he cited the historic nature of the floods – but there is no question he was attempting to shift potential responsibility for any government missteps to his predecessor.
And indeed, this has become Trump’s M.O. When something bad happens – including tragedy – Trump’s reflex has been to blame his predecessor. And often, despite Leavitt’s admonishment, he casts blame very quickly.
Airplane crashes and air traffic control problems
Recovery teams lift the mangled remains of a military helicopter that crashed midair with an American Airlines commercial airplane from the Potomac river in Arlington, Virginia, on February 6. – Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images
After a tragic crash in the Potomac River near Washington, DC, in late January that killed 67 people, Trump blamed the Biden administration and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies – despite no evidence forming anything close to such a link. He did so even as bodies were being pulled from the river.
In May, after more crashes and technical problems that in some cases traumatized air traffic controllers, Trump added that “Biden didn’t do a thing for four years.”
And just last week, Trump suggested air traffic controllers would have had better equipment, but “then Biden canceled the order when he came in.” The comment echoed previous ones from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
It’s not clear what Trump was referring to. Administrations have for decades declined to proactively modernize air traffic control. That included Trump proposals that were never enacted, the New York Times reported.
An antisemitic attack in Colorado
Police cordon off Pearl Street on June 1, in Boulder, Colorado. – Chet Strange/Getty Images North America/Getty Images
After an antisemitic firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado last month that led to dozens of injuries and eventually a death, Trump the next day blamed “Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy.”
Other top administration officials echoed that line, with White House adviser Stephen Miller calling the suspect an “illegal alien” who benefited from the Biden’s “suicidal immigration” policies.
The reality was more complex, as the Atlantic reported. The Egyptian man had arrived in 2022 during the Biden administration, but he didn’t cross the border illegally. He instead arrived on a tourist visa that Trump’s first administration had frequently awarded, and then applied for asylum – a process that allows one to temporarily stay in the country. That application was still pending when the attacks occurred.
The failure of the Gaza ceasefire
Palestinians inspect the site of Thursday's Israeli strike that damaged and destroyed residential buildings at Shati refugee camp, in Gaza City, on Friday, July 4. – Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
Trump came into office hailing his role in securing a ceasefire in Gaza.
After it fell apart in March, Trump was asked about a UNICEF report that more than 300 children had been killed and more than 600 had been injured in Gaza following the breakdown of ceasefire talks.
Asked who he blamed, Trump didn’t name Hamas or Israel, but instead Biden.
“I would say that the blame for that is Biden more than anybody else, because I had – as you know, Iran was broke, and he allowed them to become rich,” Trump told Time magazine.
When asked about blaming Hamas instead, Trump plowed forward.
“I blame the Biden administration, because they allowed Iran to get back into the game without working a deal,” he said.
The lack of a peace deal in Ukraine
A man carrying a dog walks past the wreckage of cars following mass Russian drone and missile strikes on Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, on Friday, July 4. – Oleksii Filippov/AFP/Getty Images
Trump promised to end the war between Ukraine and Russia instantly upon taking office. And when repeatedly questioned about the lack of results months into his second term, he will often fall back on calling it “Biden’s war.”
“This is Biden. This isn’t me,” Trump said Friday. “This is Biden’s war.”
When asked in April about recognizing Russian control of Crimea as part of a peace deal – a controversial part of the proposal that Ukraine publicly rejected – Trump said: “Crimea was given away by Barack Hussein Obama and by Biden.” Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, during former President Obama’s second term.
“You can blame the man that was sitting in this seat, Biden,” Trump said earlier in the month, adding: “I’m not blaming him, but what I am saying is that I wouldn’t say he’s done the greatest job.”
Economic pains
Trump’s blame-Biden refrain perhaps comes up most frequently regarding the economy, where Trump’s numbers have suffered. Trump returned to this line when the stock market sunk amid his tariff threats, when jobs numbers have come in low and when the gross domestic product had a bad quarter.
“We came in on January 20th, so this is Biden,” Trump said in late April. “And you could even say the next quarter is sort of Biden because it doesn’t just happen on a daily or an hourly basis.”
“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” he said on Truth Social the same day. “I didn’t take over until January 20th.”
Trump had said just three months prior that a stock market increase at the time was due to the “Trump effect.”
By early May, Trump had removed any subtext from when he planned to blame Biden.
“I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy,” Trump told NBC News, “because he’s done a terrible job.”
(Polling suggests this has not worked. Apparently because of Trump’s economy-rocking tariff threats, Americans quickly tied the economy to his policies – more quickly than for other recent presidents.)
Egg prices
Eggs sit stacked in a cold storage at Sunrise Farms on February 18 in Petaluma, California. – Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Perhaps no product has gotten more attention when it comes to inflation as the price of eggs. And when prices shot up early in Trump’s presidency, he blamed Biden.
“Under Biden, they soared like double, triple, quadruple. You couldn’t even get them,” Trump said in early April. “They were not available.”
He added in late April: “And when I took over, you remember the big thing with eggs? They hit me the first week, ‘Eggs, eggs, eggs,’ like it was my fault. I said, ‘I didn’t cause this problem. This problem was caused by Biden,” Trump said, adding: “Well, eggs are down 87% since I got involved.”
Egg prices are down, but not 87% as Trump claimed.
And there is a very logical culprit for the rise in egg prices: a bird flu outbreak. But Trump chose instead to blame Biden.
Signal-gate
One of Trump’s most puzzling efforts to blame Biden came amid one of the biggest scandals of his administration: Signal-gate.
While talking about his officials discussing highly sensitive military attack information on an unclassified messaging app back in March, Trump suggested some blame lie with Biden – for not launching the attack earlier.
“Joe Biden should have done this attack on Yemen, which is basically a certain group within Yemen, the Houthis, and this should have been done by Joe Biden and it wasn’t,” Trump said. “And that’s caused this world a lot of damage and a lot of problems.”
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