He promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He called on states to deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border. He warned congressional Republicans to wait for a perfect deal on immigration — or else.
Former President Donald J. Trump didn’t even clinch the Republican presidential nomination, but he wasted no time issuing directives as if he were issuing them from the Oval Office rather than between the two. appearances in a New York courtroom.
And now President Biden has been forced to consider a campaign question that no president has ever had to consider: How to run against a man who has already held the office, who has never admitted his electoral defeat and who already acts like he has the job. Again?
Mr. Trump’s power over his party, the loyalty of his base and his rapid re-emergence as a likely Republican nominee allow him to go toe-to-toe with Mr. Biden in a way that other candidates could not.
The president’s frustrations overwhelmed Friday evening as he fought to keep an immigration deal from collapsing in Congress. Mr. Trump has spent weeks pressuring lawmakers to oppose the deal, and Republicans appear unlikely to challenge him.
In an unusual statement from a president who often keeps the most sensitive negotiations private, Mr. Biden said Friday he would close the U.S.-Mexico border under emergency authority provided for in the agreement if the Republicans came back to the table and accepted it.
“For anyone who demands tougher border control, this is the way to do it,” Mr. Biden said, pointing the finger at Republicans who had demanded a border crackdown in exchange for approving military aid to Ukraine. “If you are serious about the border crisis, pass a bipartisan bill and I will sign it.”
Current and former advisers to Mr. Biden say the impasse over immigration highlights one of the most glaring arguments for the president’s re-election. The fight over border policy, led by Mr. Trump, “shows the American people where the priorities of Donald Trump and the Republicans lie, which are not really about solving problems but rather about scoring political points,” said Kate Bedingfield, M. Biden’s former communications director.
“I’m sure President Biden and his team are frustrated, as they have worked in good faith to try to reach an agreement on the border,” Ms. Bedingfield said. Asked what the president thinks about the threat Mr. Trump poses, she said Mr. Biden speaks about Mr. Trump the same way in private as he does in public: “He thinks he’s dangerous.” »
Dan Sena, a Democratic strategist, said the campaign should be better and faster at countering Mr. Trump in real time because Mr. Trump has perfected a tactic that Mr. Biden never mastered: creating a new narrative for the news cycle when the current one does not suit him.
“He really has the ability to take the oxygen out of the room and frame everything the way he wants,” Mr. Sena said. who worked to help Democrats flip the House in 2018. “They absolutely need to set the record straight.”
There is evidence that this is already happening.
On Friday, after Mr. Trump had all but torpedoed the border bill, Mr. Biden was quick to respond by pointing out that Republicans were moving away from a bill that would allow for the emergency closure of the border.
But the former president is also shadowboxing the current president in other areas.
On Thursday, between appearances in a courtroom for a defamation trial, Mr. Trump posted on social media calling on “all willing states” to deploy National Guard troops to Texas “to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants and send them back through Texas. Border,” exacerbating the impasse between Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and the Biden administration.
The Supreme Court on the side of the Biden administration this week, allowing federal authorities to cut or remove parts of an accordion barrier along the border with Mexico that Texas had erected to prevent migrants from crossing into the state. Mr. Abbott mobilized armed National Guard troops from Texas and other states to set up the barrier and order migrants to return to Mexico.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, would not say whether Mr. Biden would take federal control of the Texas National Guard, and called Mr. Abbott’s efforts a “political stunt.” .
It’s unclear whether the Biden administration’s responses will do much to entice Republicans back to the negotiating table on immigration, or anything else, now that Mr. Trump is flexing his muscles.
Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden faces low approval ratings. He struggles with pessimism about the U.S. economy, despite his efforts to highlight a healthy job market, reduced inflation and infrastructure projects under his leadership. And a significant share of young Democratic voters deeply disapprove of his support for Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
As Mr. Biden continues to harass Mr. Trump during his election campaign and, more subtly, during official events, Mr. Sena said Republicans may soon be forced to tone down Mr. Trump’s attacks in other areas, including his repeated efforts to rally support for repealing the Affordable Care Act. (Mr. Trump repeatedly failed to do this as president.)
Today, this 14-year-old law has become popular with Americans. Some 21.3 million people sign for coverage in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces for 2024, a record third consecutive year, and nearly double the number of enrollments compared to 2020.
“President Biden knows we have a responsibility to work across the aisle and govern with the best interests of families in mind,” said White House spokesman Andrew Bates, “and if d “Others have the opposite view, the American people deserve to know.”