President Joe Biden made news while visiting Shanksville, Pennsylvania, during a 9/11 commemoration event when he briefly donned a “Trump 2024” campaign hat. The incident was captured on video and led to an array of reactions online, as it appeared to be an unusual display of bipartisan unity from the president.
The episode unfolded at the Shanksville Fire Station, where Biden headed after attending a ceremony at the memorial for United Airlines Flight 93. This flight was among the four planes hijacked on September 11, 2001.
In a lighthearted moment, the president took a Trump supporter’s campaign hat and briefly placed it over his own while addressing firefighters and attendees at the station. White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates later explained this act as a symbol of “bipartisan unity,” a theme Biden had emphasized earlier that day.
“At the Shanksville Fire Station, @POTUS spoke about the country’s bipartisan unity after 9/11 and said we needed to get back to that,” Bates posted on X. He clarified that Biden handed a hat to a Trump supporter as a sign of goodwill, who then suggested the President should wear his Trump cap. The President briefly did so.
The image of Biden wearing the red Trump hat quickly went viral, with many questioning the authenticity of the footage and speculating it might be AI-generated or edited. However, conservative commentators like writer Carmine Sabia confirmed the video was genuine.
Other public figures joined the discussion, injecting humor into their responses. Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis humorously suggested that even Joe Biden would be voting for President Trump, while Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt’s press secretary Will O’Grady playfully commented, “Joe Biden is gonna get prosecuted by his own DOJ now.”
The incident took place on a solemn day of remembrance. Along with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump attended various ceremonies to honor the victims of the September 11 attacks.
Biden’s statements during the event underscored the need to revive the cooperative spirit that emerged after the 9/11 attacks, when political differences seemed to recede in the face of national mourning and reconstruction. Bates indicated that the hat exchange at the fire station mirrored these sentiments.
While some deemed the act as well-intentioned, others interpreted it with skepticism or amusement. The incident swiftly became a focal point in media conversations. Conservative political writers and journalists, including Piers Morgan, shared their perspectives, with Morgan tweeting, “Joe Biden just put on a Trump 2024 campaign cap. This is not a joke… he really did,” accompanied by a playful monkey covering its eyes emoji.
Regardless of the varied reactions, the White House emphasized that Biden’s decision to wear the hat was a premeditated effort to bridge political differences. As Bates elucidated, the President considered the exchange a chance to fortify the message of bipartisan unity that had dominated his remarks that day.