Going for the jugular: "Smokin'' Joe" Biden plans to take off the gloves and hit Trump where it hurts, in his already rattled brain, as hardball begins in campaign

Biden plans to land haymakers on Trump

 

President Biden wants to start playing hardball with Donald Trump, in a move that could be called 'Going for the Jugular," according to a report at Axios. The plan is to rattle Trump by getting under his skin, partly by referring to him as "The Loser." That plan likely was behind Biden's fiery rhetoric in his State of the Union (SOTU) address, and the president reportedly wants to keep it up. Trump is soft and shaky in several places, especially between his ears, so that appears to be Biden's No. 1 target. Writes Axios' Mike Allen:

President Biden is privately pushing for a much more aggressive approach to 2024: Go for Donald Trump's jugular.

• Why it matters: Biden is convinced he'll rattle Trump if he taunts him daily, Axios' Hans Nichols and Alex Thompson report.

Biden has told friends he thinks Trump is wobbly, both intellectually and emotionally, and will explode if Biden mercilessly gigs and goads him — "go haywire in public," as one adviser put it.

• Other sources tell us Biden is looking for a fight.
• Biden's instincts tell him to let it fly when warning about the consequences of Trump winning the presidency again. Biden told The New Yorker that Trump would refuse to admit losing, again.

The story of Biden's plan comes amid reports that Trump's already shaky mental health is showing signs of slipping. Mike Allen writes:

Between the lines: The "trigger Trump" approach would be a departure from a traditional Rose Garden re-election campaign.

• Instead of focusing on jobs and the economy — areas in which polls suggest Americans aren't giving Biden much credit — Biden would be making the contest as much about Trump as his own accomplishments.
• One potential upside: It would help assuage concerns about Biden's age by showing that at 81, he can still throw a Scranton punch.

We've already seen signs of a feisty Biden, and Axios reports we should look for that to continue:

State of play: Biden flashed his new fighting spirit at the State of the Union address, but his feistiness has been apparent for several weeks.

• "Loser" has become a favorite Biden taunt of Trump lately.

In a rare, lengthy interview with The New Yorker published yesterday, Biden said: "I'm the only one who has ever beaten him. And I'll beat him again."

• "Trump lost 60 court cases — 60," Biden said recently, referring to the legal challenges on Trump's behalf that alleged fraud in the 2020 election. (It was 63, actually.) "The legal path just took him back to the truth — that I won the election, and he was a loser."

Zoom out: In a speech at Valley Forge, Pa., before the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, Biden attacked Trump in terms that were clearly personal — and nearly profane.

• He suggested Trump was a "sick [blank]" before catching himself.

Biden advisers have some evidence that Biden already is getting under Trump's skin.

• After Biden's recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Trump posted a video complaining about the show, calling the president a "basket case."