Minutes after the news broke of former President Donald Trump's historic conviction on 34 counts of felony falsification of business records, President Joe Biden posted on X seeking donations to his re-election campaign.
It didn't seem to work out the way he -- or, more likely, the intern posting to his X account -- had hoped.
"There’s only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box," the post said, along with a link to a donation site. "Donate to our campaign today."
There’s only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box.
Donate to our campaign today: https://t.co/aJXS9oti0a
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 30, 2024
We cannot, of course, state with 100 percent certainty that Biden's post was in response to the guilty verdicts, but the timing -- literally three minutes after The New York Times posted about the verdicts on X -- certainly seems telling.
But whereas Trump's donation site crashed because of heavy traffic following the verdict, Biden's post elicited a somewhat different response ... on social media, anyway.
Virtually every reply to Biden's post was critical of the president, support of Trump, or both. (Having said that, I should also add that the post received 34,000 replies, and I obviously didn't scroll through all of them. But of the first 100 that appear under Biden's tweet, three replies -- three -- were favorable to Joe Biden, and one other might be interpreted as neutral.)
Examples of the pro-Trump posts were numerous, like this one, from Virginia state delegate Nick Freitas.
"Well Democrats, congratulations," he wrote. "I didn't start out a Trump fan. I supported Rand Paul in the primary in 2016. I was skeptical of whether or not Trump would do what he said. Even after supporting him in 2020, I was frustrated by some of his policies ..."
"... but now ... now ... I will enthusiastically campaign, donate and vote for Trump. Because if nothing else, he represents opposition to YOU. The people who engage in 'lawfare,' openly target your political rivals for prosecution while ignoring the real issues facing this country.
"You have now showed us the rules of the game ... don't be surprised when we start playing by them," he added.
Well Democrats, congratulations. I didn't start out a Trump fan. I supported Rand Paul in the primary in 2016. I was skeptical of whether or not Trump would do what he said. Even after supporting him in 2020, I was frustrated by some of his policies...
...but now...now...I will…
— Nick Freitas (@NickJFreitas) May 30, 2024
But Freitas was hardly the only X user to express support for Trump or to mock Biden for his post -- or both.
