White House Claims Biden Wearing a Trump Hat Was ‘Gesture’ of ‘Bipartisan Unity’

The White House responded on Wednesday afternoon to a viral image of President Joe Biden wearing a Donald Trump hat during a 9/11 commemoration ceremony.

On Wednesday, Biden was seen attending ceremonies celebrate the victims alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump a day after the pair met on the ABC debate stage .

While greeting firefighters in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Biden was photographed wearing a bright red “Trump 2024” hat. The event was meant to commemorate where Untied Flight 93 crashed. Trump supporters erupted on social media with images of Biden wearing the hat and alleged that the president was senile.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates responded to the viral image on X, formerly Twitter, by stating Biden wore the hat after a Trump supporter gave him it at the event in order to promote “bipartisan unity.”

“At the Shanksville Fire Station, President Joe Biden spoke about the country’s bipartisan unity after 9/11 and said we needed to get back to that,” Bates wrote to his followers on X.

“As a gesture, he gave a hat to a Trump supporter who then said that in the same spirit, POTUS should put on his Trump cap,” Bates added. “He briefly wore it.”