President Donald Trump stood on a stage in Detroit on Tuesday and decided to talk about Joe Biden—again. The POTUS, now 79 years old, was addressing the Detroit Economic Club in Michigan and began his speech by contrasting his own speaking style with that of his predecessor, eliciting laughs from the crowd.
“You know, when you go up here, you take a big chance, especially me, because I go off teleprompter about 80 percent of the time,” Donald Trump said. “But isn’t it nice to have a president that can go off teleprompter, don’t you think?” he added.
The husband of Melania Trump then pivoted to Biden’s speeches. “Remember the speeches Joe would make?” Donald Trump asked. “First of all, they’d last a matter of seconds, you know.”
BREAKING: Trump HUMILIATES himself, doing a mocking cough of President Biden, who has cancer, to a room sitting in stunned silence at the unnecessary and cruel taunt.
This is a new low, even for Trump.pic.twitter.com/wDOUZAGjil
— Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) January 13, 2026
Donald Trump adopted a raspy voice, channeling the 83-year-old former president. “Thank you very much,” he said in that imitation, drawing laughter from the audience. He continued the bit, adding commentary about Biden’s tendency to cough before speeches.
“You ever notice Joe would always cough before a speech? State of the Union, he gets…” Donald Trump continued, then produced a loud, exaggerated cough to punctuate the impression.
The crowd broke in laughter as Donald Trump had intended. He, then, went further by making a claim about a Joe Biden speech. “Although the one time they had him spruced up pretty good. Remember he was high as a kite? He was floating. He was up there way up. He didn’t. That was a bad speech. But, hey, he got through it, you know. He got through it. If you call it getting through it,” he stated.
Donald Trump did not specify which speech he was referring to when he said Biden was “high as a kite.” However, his remarks appeared to be a general assertion about Biden’s state during a particular public appearance.
#Trump was caught on camera flipping off a worker at a Ford plant in Detroit.
Video obtained by TMZ showed a Ford worker shouting “pedophile protector” at Trump, who responded by flipping his middle finger at the worker and saying, “f*** you.” pic.twitter.com/U6d0glbiwu
— KWTX News 10 (@kwtx) January 14, 2026
Just last week, Donald Trump brought Biden up in an interview with the New York Times. “I think Joe Biden is the worst thing that ever happened to old people,” the POTUS said.
Trump, throughout the years, has slammed Biden’s cognitive ability and perpetuated the nickname “Sleepy Joe.” He even argued that the former president had become a symbol of decline for an entire demographic and has repeatedly questioned whether Biden could do the duties of the president. The irony of a seventy-nine-year-old president making this argument about an eighty-three-year-old former president apparently escaped him.
Even after Biden stepped aside in July 2024, allowing former Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump has continued to reference Biden in speeches and interviews. The Detroit speech represented a continuation of that pattern.
What was clear, however, was that Donald Trump remained preoccupied with Biden even as he sat in the Oval Office as president for a second time. The POTUS is not just criticizing Biden’s policies or performance as a commander-in-chief, but has made the 83-year-old politician’s cognitive ability a central theme of his political messaging.
Inquisitr has reached out to Joe Biden’s reps for comments.
