Trump Revives Biden Golf Taunt as Cancer Shapes His Public Life

Donald Trump has returned to an old line of attack against Joe Biden: golf. This time, however, the political setting is very different from the 2024 campaign.

In an Aug. 7 post on Truth Social, Trump shared a photograph of Biden taking a golf shot and wrote, “Biden isn’t even a 100 Handicap.” The post did not mention Biden’s health. Yet the former president is now living with metastatic prostate cancer, and his family has recently spoken more openly about the pain caused by the disease. Boldest Voice reported that the new jab revives a rivalry that once played as campaign spectacle but now lands in a more serious personal context.

Biden was diagnosed in May 2025 with an aggressive prostate cancer that had spread to bone. His office said the disease had a Gleason score of 9, while also saying it was hormone-sensitive and could be managed with treatment. In early August, Hunter Biden said his father had been experiencing significant pain and described the illness as debilitating.

That background changes the political meaning of a familiar Trump tactic. Golf was already part of the two men’s public contest over age, strength and competence. During the June 2024 presidential debate, Trump boasted about club championships and questioned whether Biden could hit a ball 50 yards. Biden responded by citing a former handicap and challenging Trump to carry his own bag.

At the time, the exchange was widely treated as an odd detour in a debate about whether two older candidates were physically fit for the presidency. The dispute became memorable precisely because it turned a serious question about age into a quarrel over a recreational sport.

Two years later, the same joke is harder to separate from Biden’s health. He is no longer a candidate and no longer in office. Trump is not attacking a policy or a campaign promise. He is returning to a physical comparison with a predecessor whose family is publicly discussing cancer-related pain.

The contrast is sharper because Trump’s first public reaction to Biden’s diagnosis was sympathetic. After the cancer announcement in 2025, Trump said he and Melania were saddened by the news and wished Biden a fast and successful recovery. Political hostility soon resumed, but that initial response reflected the traditional pause that often follows news of a serious illness.

The latest post suggests that pause has ended. Trump’s language remains focused on golf rather than cancer, and there is an important distinction between mocking a sport performance and mocking a disease. But politics is also shaped by timing, context and the condition of the person being targeted.

The result is a familiar Trump message with a changed emotional weight. Golf once served as a proxy argument over which man looked stronger on a debate stage. Now one of those men is undergoing treatment for metastatic cancer, and the old scorekeeping continues anyway.

Author

Caroline Mercer

World News Correspondent

Caroline Mercer covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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