Joe Biden branded Republican presidential contender Donald Trump “Donald Dump” at a campaign style event in Maryland on Thursday.
The Context
The president made the remark at an event held to celebrate an agreement between Medicare and major pharmaceutical companies that will limit the price of some medicines.
Biden’s move replicates a favored Trump campaign technique, with the former president having long delighted in devising mildly insulting nicknames for his political rivals. These have included “Sleepy Joe” for Biden and “Ron DeSanctimonious” for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who Trump defeated in the Republican presidential primary.
What We Know
Speaking during his address on Thursday, Biden said: “The guy we’re running against – what’s him name? Donald Dump or whatever.”
Biden: The guy we’re running against, what’s his name? Donald Dump or Donald whatever pic.twitter.com/SwN7yU4kfj
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 15, 2024
The remark sparked laughter from the audience, as members held up placards reading “lowering prescription drug costs,” before, with reference to Republicans, Biden continued: “They want to get rid of what we just passed.”
A clip of Biden’s remarks, originally broadcast by MSNBC, was posted on X by the Acyn account, which shares footage related to U.S. politics. It went viral on the platform, receiving over 3,500 reposts, 26,000 likes and 4 million views.
Newsweek contacted the White House press office and representatives of the Donald Trump and Kamala Harris presidential campaigns for comment via email on Friday outside of regular office hours.
The Biden administration has negotiated new drug prices, which from 2026 will lower the costs of Medicare’s 10 most common and expensive drugs. According to the White House, the move will save taxpayers around $6 billion, along with knocking $1.5 billion off of seniors’ prescription costs.
In a statement, Biden said: “For years, millions of Americans were forced to choose between paying for medications or putting food on the table, while Big Pharma blocked Medicare from being able to negotiate prices on behalf of seniors and people with disabilities. But we fought back—and won.
“Today, for the first time in history, my administration is announcing that Medicare has reached agreements on new, lower prices with the manufacturers of all 10 drugs selected for the first round of drug price negotiation.”
Drugs impacted by the plans, which will see their prices fall by 38 percent to 79 percent, are Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara and Fiasp.
Views
Biden’s new nickname for Trump triggered a wave of commentary on social media, including a number of jokes and memes.
One X user from Kansas City wrote: “Look, coming from anyone else, the ‘Donald Dump’ comment would be cringe, but, coming from a guy in his eighties, it’s actually a pretty sick burn.”
Another commentator said: “Trump is in his lair beating Don Jr over the head with a thesaurus to get ‘Rick DeSanctimonious,’ and the sundowning sitting president just snipes him with ‘Donald Dump.'”
Tyler Albertario, a self-styled “queer historian,” wrote “Biden coming up with ‘Donald Dump'” and posted a video showing a chef squashing and heating a lump of meat to make a burger, in an apparent reference to Biden having made a “burn.” The post went viral with more than 1,400 people sharing it and overall it received more than 1.6 million views.
