Joe Biden has kept a relatively low profile since handing the White House keys back to Donald Trump in January 2025.
This appears to have changed, with the 83-year-old refusing to mince his words while giving a keynote address at a Maryland Democratic Party gala. As reported by The Guardian, Biden’s ten-minute speech touched upon multiple controversies surrounding the Trump administration.
Biden referenced Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make way for his opulent ballroom, the addition and later removal of his name on the front of the John Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Trump’s vision of a DC triumphal arch, and the ongoing algal drama surrounding the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
He then zeroed in on the Trump administration’s plans to financially compensate those convicted for their part in Jan. 6, saying, “My God. These people don’t deserve to be compensated. They deserve to be put in jail for a long, long, long time.” He then summarized his opinion on Trump:
“It’s not just his vanity projects, tearing down the East Wing of the White House, making room for his ballroom, putting his name on the Kennedy Centre, building an arch in his own honour, even hiring his own pool guy to fix the reflecting pool. Whoa. What a loser.”
“Frankly, it’s embarrassing for the country”
He also rounded on what he dubbed “blatant corruption”
“It’s the corruption – the corruption, the brazen, blatant corruption. Corruption on a scale never seen before in American history in any administration. … He has no shame, and frankly, it’s embarrassing for the country, but Trump couldn’t care less. Making money off the presidency is one of the reasons he wants to be president.”
On Trump’s foreign policy, Biden said:
“He’s diminished our standing in the world more than any president in history.”
Biden’s speech was made on the second anniversary of his presidential debate with Trump, which was described as a “disaster” by CBC News, and during which he performed so poorly that Jill Biden admitted in her memoir that she was scared he was having a stroke on stage.
Since leaving office, Biden has also had to contend with being diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, which has been deemed incurable but manageable. As Jill Biden explained (as reported by the NY Post):
““It’s stage four, and it has metastasized to his bones… Joe will have to live with cancer for the rest of his life… the mix of everything and the medications… has made life a little more difficult these days.”
Jill Biden also admitted that she doesn’t think Biden would have been able to serve another four-year term had he won in 2024, based on “what I know now”.
Published: Jun 29, 2026 08:35 am