Former president appears partially obscured behind Jill Biden while son stands prominently in foreground of family image
Former President Joe Biden shared a family photo on social media on Christmas Eve, sparking online criticism after he appeared partially visible in the image while son Hunter stood front and center.
The photo shows several members of the Biden family standing in front of a decorated Christmas tree, with Hunter positioned prominently in the foreground.
Former first lady Jill Biden is also in the image, standing in front of the former president with her head partially obstructing his face. All other family members appear fully framed and clearly visible.
In the X post accompanying the image, Biden wrote, “Wishing you a peaceful and joyful Christmas Eve filled with joy.”
The post did not address the framing of the photo, and representatives for Biden did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The image circulated widely on social media following its release, with users commenting on the positioning and composition of the family members shown.
One person posted a close-up of Biden’s face, writing, “Took me a while to find ya, champ.”
Former President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference on the final day of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., July 11, 2024. (Jacquelyn Martin, File/AP Photo)
Another commenter wrote, “I think it’s disrespectful to put the eldest family member in the back of a photo taken for the former president’s social media.”
Appearing to compare the image to a Where’s Waldo? scene, one person wrote, “Where’s Joe?”
Another user asked Biden in the comments, “Why are you in the back, blocked by Jill?”
Other users questioned why Hunter was positioned so prominently in the photo, with some comments focusing specifically on his placement.
One person wrote, “Hunter is the alpha now.”
Additional posts shared altered versions of the image, depicting Hunter either shirtless or with a white substance under his nose.
“Wishing you and your entire family (specially your son) a white Christmas,” one user wrote.
Not all the comments were critical of the photo or the former president.
One person wrote, “Wishing you and your family a peaceful and joyful Christmas. Your strength and love inspire us all.”
Another added, “Wishing you a peaceful Christmas Eve too, Mr. President. Let’s hope the spirit of goodwill extends into the new year and helps bridge some of the divides we’ve seen. The image is a nice reminder of simpler times.”
Several others shared similar sentiments, including a message that said, “Merry Christmas to the whole Biden family!”
(NewsNation) — As tens of thousands of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein continue to be released, Republican leaders continue to question why the previous administration didn’t declassify them.
In December, Congress and President Donald Trump passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, compelling the Department of Justice to release documents related to Epstein by Dec. 19.
Since then, several rounds of files have been published by the Department of Justice, though a majority are heavily redacted. A complete timeline for the release of the files is unknown.
Trump is mentioned and pictured in the files, and some photos featuring Trump were restored to the DOJ’s website after Democrats accused prosecutors of trying to shield the president.
In a Dec. 23 statement, the DOJ said some of the new files contain “untrue and sensationalist claims” about Trump, submitted to the FBI before the 2020 election. The department did not clarify which claims — and corresponding files — contained such material.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer asked the Senate to sue the Justice Department over the unmet deadline and has accused the Trump administration of attempting to “hide the truth.”
Conversely, Republicans have pointed the finger at the previous administration. So, why weren’t the Epstein files released while former President Joe Biden was in office?
Epstein case was an open investigation under Biden
The Epstein case was an open criminal investigation during the Biden administration, Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown explained on social media. Brown’s extensive reporting since 2017 has shone a light on the crimes of Epstein and his longtime accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Her book about Epstein, titled “Perversions of Justice,” is a New York Times bestseller.
“They had an open grand jury. … And even after Maxwell’s conviction, the case was on appeal — anyone in law enforcement knows you don’t open your case file when it’s still under appeal,” Brown added.
Victims were still going to the FBI with information during Biden’s term, but that changed when President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice reviewed the files and closed the case in July, Brown said.
White House installs plaques mocking former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden
The Biden plaque refers to him as “Sleepy Joe Biden” and calls him “the worst President in American History.”
WASHINGTON — The White House has installed plaques on the exterior of the building bashing President Donald Trump’s predecessors, including Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and promoting disinformation about their administrations.
The plaques were hung up below presidential portraits that have been on display on Trump’s recently added “Presidential Walk of Fame” in the White House colonnade.
The one placed under the portrait of the “Autopen,” which stands in for President Joe Biden’s portrait, refers to him as “Sleepy Joe Biden” and calls him “the worst President in American History.” The plaque contains a number of derisive statements about the former president, referring to Biden’s “severe mental decline,” “the Biden Crime Family” and his “Radical Left handlers.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News in a statement that Trump wrote the text of “many” of the plaques.
“The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind,” she said. “As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself.”
The plaque says that Biden took office in the White House “as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States,” alluding to the 2020 presidential election whose results Trump sought to overturn. It accuses Biden of overseeing “a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction,” noting the inflation that developed during his presidency, denouncing the Inflation Reduction Act as the “Green New Scam” and blasting his administration’s immigration policies.
“His Afghanistan Disaster was among the most humiliating events in American History,” the plaque says, noting the deaths of 13 U.S. service members during the 2021 withdrawal. “Seeing Biden’s devastating weakness, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Hamas terrorists launched the heinous October 7th attack on Israel,” it says.
It also references Biden’s poor performance in the 2024 presidential debate, saying, “Following his humiliating debate loss to President Trump in the big June 2024 debate, he was forced to withdraw from his campaign for re-election in disgrace.”
Biden’s office declined to comment.
Obama’s plaque names him as “Barack Hussein Obama” — the former president’s full name, which is often used derisively in right-wing circles. Calling him “one of the most divisive figures in American history,” the plaque details what the Trump administration paints as his failures, including Obamacare, which it calls “the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act.”
“He presided over a stagnant Economy, approved the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, and signed the one-sided Paris Climate Accords, both of which were later terminated by President Donald J. Trump,” the plaque says.
Obama’s plaque also repeats Trump’s conspiracy theory that Obama “spied” on his 2016 presidential campaign and says he “presided over the creation of the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the worst political scandal in American History.”
Obama’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Bill Clinton’s plaque ends with the fact that Trump beat Clinton’s wife, Hillary, in the 2016 presidential election. Clinton’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two plaques summarizing Trump’s time as president describe his leadership in glowing terms.
The one detailing his first four years says during that period, he “signed the Largest Tax Cuts in History, built a booming Economy, eliminated a record number of Federal Regulations, rebuilt the United States Military, terminated the Iran Nuclear Deal and the Paris Climate Accords, ended the NAFTA disaster, destroyed the ISIS Caliphate, signed the historic Abraham Accords, and created the Greatest Economy in the History of the World.”
The plaque also boasts about Trump’s second term, including his sweeping tariffs, hard-line immigration policies and says he “removed Critical Race Theory and transgender insanity from public schools, and banned men from women’s sports.”
“He began the construction of the Golden Dome missile defense shield, renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, and has built, right here at the White House, the magnificent Trump Presidential Ballroom after a 225 year wait — but THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about how the plaques were paid for, whether government funds were used and whether they were installed by government employees.
The new plaques drew mixed reactions from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“I’m really disturbed by that,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, who often bucks her party, told NBC News.
“These are individuals who served who were elected by people around this country. Whether I supported them or not, they were the country’s president,” Murkowski said. “Let’s not have President Trump trying to redefine the contributions or lack of contributions of each. That’s inappropriate.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, a staunch Trump ally, indicated the plaques were not a concern.
“I don’t think that’s going to move the ball for us. There may be some amusement there,” he said before pivoting to the 2026 midterm elections. “But the bottom line is, if we lose the House, he’s going to get impeached. We need to focus on, you know, fixing people’s problems. And the more we can focus on that, the better.”
Trump ousts more Biden-era ambassadors
The envoys are career Foreign Service officers, making the decision to remove them unusual.
The Trump administration is recalling a number of career ambassadors appointed by former President Joe Biden, according to a State Department official familiar with the situation and the head of the diplomats’ union.
John Dinkelman, president of the American Foreign Service Association, the diplomats’ union, said the group had been getting anecdotal reports from ambassadors as far afield as East Asia and the Pacific who were told via phone calls that they had to be gone by Jan. 15 or Jan. 16. The envoys were not given a reason.
Around two dozen ambassadors are being told to leave their posts, the State Department official said, having been granted anonymity because the topic involves personnel issues. Dinkelman said he did not have complete information on how many were being recalled.
The move is the latest major shake-up of the diplomatic ranks under President Donald Trump. It is particularly unusual because it involves envoys who hail from the career Foreign Service.
While it is normal for new presidents to replace political appointees serving as ambassadors, career diplomats are typically allowed to continue serving because it is understood that, by virtue of being in the Foreign Service, they will carry out the wishes of whoever is in the White House regardless of political party.
But the Trump administration has had little trust in the career ranks at the State Department. Its officials have called the State Department a bastion of liberalism, and the administration has already pushed out thousands of department employees.
Dinkelman decried the administration’s actions, suggesting it would hurt the standing of U.S. diplomacy.
“It continues to undermine the confidence in the professional Foreign Service’s ability to effectively carry out the policies of the elected leadership of our nation,” he said.
In a statement, the State Department insisted that the recalls were “a standard process in any administration.”
“An ambassador is a personal representative of the president and it is the president’s right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the America First agenda,” the department said in the statement.
Ambassadors do serve at the pleasure of the president, regardless of whether they are political nominees or Foreign Service members.
But while Trump was quick to push out Biden’s political appointees from such roles upon taking office, he has been slow to fill many ambassadorships, and some nominations have stalled in the Senate.
“We have about 80 vacant ambassadorships,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Yet, President Trump is giving away U.S. leadership to China and Russia by removing qualified career ambassadors who serve faithfully no matter who’s in power.”
Why weren’t the Epstein files released during the Biden administration?
(NewsNation) — As tens of thousands of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein continue to be released, Republican leaders continue to question why the previous administration didn’t declassify them.
In December, Congress and President Donald Trump passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, compelling the Department of Justice to release documents related to Epstein by Dec. 19.
Since then, several rounds of files have been published by the Department of Justice, though a majority are heavily redacted. A complete timeline for the release of the files is unknown.
Trump is mentioned and pictured in the files, and some photos featuring Trump were restored to the DOJ’s website after Democrats accused prosecutors of trying to shield the president.
In a Dec. 23 statement, the DOJ said some of the new files contain “untrue and sensationalist claims” about Trump, submitted to the FBI before the 2020 election. The department did not clarify which claims — and corresponding files — contained such material.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer asked the Senate to sue the Justice Department over the unmet deadline and has accused the Trump administration of attempting to “hide the truth.”
Conversely, Republicans have pointed the finger at the previous administration. So, why weren’t the Epstein files released while former President Joe Biden was in office?
Epstein case was an open investigation under Biden
The Epstein case was an open criminal investigation during the Biden administration, Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown explained on social media. Brown’s extensive reporting since 2017 has shone a light on the crimes of Epstein and his longtime accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Her book about Epstein, titled “Perversions of Justice,” is a New York Times bestseller.
“They had an open grand jury. … And even after Maxwell’s conviction, the case was on appeal — anyone in law enforcement knows you don’t open your case file when it’s still under appeal,” Brown added.
Victims were still going to the FBI with information during Biden’s term, but that changed when President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice reviewed the files and closed the case in July, Brown said.
Trump reverses course on Epstein files
Though Trump campaigned last year on the promise he would immediately release the Epstein files if he won the presidency, he switched his narrative earlier this year. Since then, he has received pressure from both sides of the aisle to release the files.
As public pressure mounted, Trump questioned the political rationale for renewed interest in releasing the files.
In a July interview with conservative outlet Real America’s Voice, Trump said, “I think in the case of Epstein, they’ve already looked at it and they are looking at it and I think all they have to do is put out anything credible. But you know, that was run by the Biden administration for four years.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Trump allies have echoed that stance.
“The Biden Department of Justice had the files the entire time, and not a single one of the people who were so loud and animated right now ever said anything about it for all those four years,” Johnson said during a news conference Tuesday.
Trump eventually reversed course and urged House Republicans to vote to release all files related to the investigation.
“We have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote on social media.
