Trump and Biden trade barbs over Social Security and immigration

Matthew Medsger, Boston Herald on Apr 16, 2025

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President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden hurled a volley of haymakers at each other in an exchange that marks the first remarks from Biden since Trump has taken office.

Biden blasted Trump as the new administration approaches its first 100 days in office.

“In fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made... has done so much damage, and so much destruction, it’s kind of breathtaking that it could happen that soon,” the former president said Tuesday during the first public remarks he’s made since leaving the White House.

Biden claimed the Trump administration has taken “a hatchet to the social security administration,” by forcing out 7,000 employees “including the most seasoned officials.”

“Now they’re getting ready to push thousands more out the door,” the former president said, noting that already the Social Security Administration website was recently unavailable for many beneficiaries.

Under Trump’s leadership, Biden said that “serious people are now genuinely concerned, for the first time in history — for the first and only time in history — that social security benefits may be delayed or interrupted.”

Trump fired back on Wednesday, blasting Biden on border security and immigration without addressing the former president’s comments directly.

“Sleepy Joe Biden, THE WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, has allowed millions and millions of Criminals, many of them murderers, drug dealers, and people released from prisons and mental institutions from all around the world, to enter our Country through it’s (sic) very dangerous and ill conceived Open Border,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, his privately owned social media company, emphasis his.

“Sorry, but it’s my job to get these killers and thugs out of here. THAT’S WHAT I GOT ELECTED TO DO. MAGA!” the 47th president wrote.

Biden is not the first former president to speak out against Trump’s actions during the first months of his second term. Earlier this month, former President Barack Obama was addressing a crowd at Hamilton College in New York when he openly wondered what the reaction might be if he were to have attempted any of Trump’s policies.

“Imagine if I had done any of this,” Obama said. “It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me, or a whole bunch of my predecessors.”

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