Joe Biden’s presidential re-election campaign labeled Donald Trump “weak and desperate” and “feeble, confused and tired”, after the former president and presumptive Republican nominee appeared in court and then spoke to the press in New York.
“Donald Trump is weak and desperate – both as a man and a candidate for president,” said James Singer, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, on Monday.
“He spent the weekend golfing, the morning comparing himself to Jesus, and the afternoon lying about having money he definitely doesn’t have.
“His campaign can’t raise money, he is uninterested in campaigning outside his country club, and every time he opens his mouth, he pushes moderate and suburban voters away with his dangerous agenda.
“America deserves better than a feeble, confused, and tired Donald Trump.”
Trump’s lack of campaign events, fundraising deficit and focus on golf were widely noted last weekend.
After federal filings showed Biden nearly $40m ahead of Trump in funds raised, the president’s campaign taunted their rival as “Broke Don”. Many social media users opposed to Trump added to the taunting by making #DonPoorleone – inspired by the fictional Corleone crime family from The Godfather film series – a trending hashtag.
After Trump boasted about winning titles at one of his own golf clubs, the president’s social media team sought to damn him with faint praise.
On Monday morning, as Trump sat in court in New York in a hearing related to his looming trial on 34 criminal counts arising from hush-money payments to an adult film star who claimed a sexual encounter, he posted to social media a message from a supporter who compared him to Christ.
Trump’s unprecedented legal jeopardy also includes 14 criminal counts related to attempted election subversion and 40 arising from his retention of classified information.
But he did get a boost on Monday when a New York appeals court reduced his bond in his business fraud case to $175m from $454m and gave him more time to pay it.
Trump said he would do so. Speaking to reporters, he complained about the judge in the case, who the former president called “either whacked out or dishonest, one or the other, or both”.
A spokesperson for the New York state attorney general said: “Donald Trump is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud. The court has already found that he engaged in years of fraud to falsely inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family and his organisation.”
Tuesday brought more encouraging news for the Biden campaign, in the form of polling showing the president gaining on Trump in six of seven battleground states.
A monthly poll from Bloomberg News and Morning Consult put Biden a point up on Trump in Wisconsin, having been four down in February, and tied in Michigan and in Pennsylvania, where Trump was up six last month.
Trump leads by five points in Arizona, seven points in Georgia, six points in North Carolina and two points in Nevada, according to the new polling.
Later on Tuesday, Biden and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, were due to campaign in North Carolina. On Trump’s campaign website, the events page was still blank.
