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Donald Trump and his campaign team are reacting to the news that President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race, a move unprecedented in the history of American politics.
And they're not holding back.
"Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve - And never was! He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn't capable of being President, and he wasn't - And now, look what he's done to our Country, with millions of people coming across our Border, totally unchecked and unvetted, many from prisons, mental institutions, and record numbers of terrorists."
He added: "We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the 2024 presidential nominee, prompting criticism from Trump's allies.
Donald Trump Jr. took aim at Harris on Sunday.
"Kamala Harris owns the entire leftwing policy record of Joe Biden," he wrote on X. "The only difference is that she is even more liberal and less competent than Joe, which is really saying something. She was put in charge of the border and we saw the worst invasion of illegals in our history!!!"
A MAGA-focused Super PAC also shared an ad bashing Harris less than an hour after Biden's exit.
"Kamala was in on it. She covered up Joe's obvious mental decline. Kamala knew Joe couldn't do the job, so she did it," the caption read.
Running against Biden was working well for Trump. Even before Biden's disastrous debate performance, the president was trailing behind Trump in the polls, continuously flubbing interviews and speeches, and struggling to connect with young voters — all things that made Biden look weak and Trump look strong. And the Trump campaign has tried to capitalize on that, attacking Biden for being "sleepy" and arguing that he doesn't have the strength to be tough on crime or strict on immigration.
But in the lead-up to the June 27 debate, Trump and Republicans shifted their narrative on Biden. They had so adamantly sought to portray Biden as feeble that it actually could have backfired on them: If Biden were to do even a middling job at the debate, it would make him look much better than people expected. Trump and some Republicans began suggesting that Biden would be on performance-enhancing drugs at the debate.
Then the debate happened, and everything got much, much worse for Biden — which was good for Trump, so long as Biden stayed in the race.
Before Biden's bombshell announcement that he was dropping out of the race, people familiar with the Trump campaign told The Guardian that Trump and his team wanted Biden to stay in the race. And they were even strategizing ways to continue criticizing Biden without pushing him so hard that he dropped out, The Guardian reported.
But now that that's all been tossed out the window, the Trump campaign must scramble to reframe its attack narrative around an entirely new opponent.
Trump's campaign has already begun rallying donors in an email on Sunday.
"If we're going to WIN BACK THE WHITE HOUSE, it will be all because of the momentum we build AT THIS VERY MOMENT — RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!" the message said.
