Biden keeps needling Trump as he walks a tightrope over his rival’s trial

President Joe Biden might not be saying much about his Republican challenger’s criminal trial, but as Donald Trump sits in a Manhattan courtroom — irritated, seemingly tired and, by his own declaration, freezing cold — the president is still finding plenty to say about his rival.

President Joe Biden might not be saying much about his Republican challenger’s criminal trial, but as Donald Trump sits in a Manhattan courtroom — irritated, seemingly tired and, by his own declaration, freezing cold — the president is still finding plenty to say about his rival. The Trump Bibles he’s selling? “I almost wanted to buy one just to see what the hell is in it,” he said this week in Florida. Drooping stock prices for Trump’s Truth Social? “He might do better under my tax plan than his,” Biden deadpanned in Pennsylvania. Trump’s Covid-era musing on injecting bleach? “He missed. It all went to his hair,” he told a crowd of builders in Washington. Sure, there are ample punchlines for a trial that contains, at its center, a hush money payment to an adult film star. Biden has been studiously avoiding those and doesn’t plan on changing that approach anytime soon. Instead, as he goes about a robust schedule of policy speeches and campaign events, Biden is finding other ways to needle Trump, all with an eye toward getting under his predecessor’s skin without crossing a self-drawn line on providing ongoing trial commentary.