Suddenly Trump’s got nothing to say about Hunter Biden

After years of using Hunter Biden’s legal and personal dramas to bash his father, former President Donald Trump and his campaign have been largely silent as the president’s son stands trial in Delaware in a gun case saturated in ugly family drama.

While Trump’s campaign said it will continue casting Hunter Biden’s legal problems as part of the “Biden crime family” and plans to highlight the trial on social media, it is not attacking every tiny development.

For Trump, there are bigger electoral issues at play. On Tuesday, his campaign held a press call to denounce the president’s executive action on immigration as “pro-invasion.” The former president also released eight new videos touching on news ranging from a detained journalist in Russia to independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. His campaign launched a new grassroots organizing effort and sent out its daily afternoon newsletter, which was solely focused on the border and Nevada’s counting of mail ballots. There wasn’t a single mention of Hunter Biden.

Biden “is so underwater on the border and inflation, and voters are mad about inflation every day. Focusing on those things are going to be smarter for the campaign to do,” said Republican strategist Doug Heye.

Trump’s campaign, when asked whether it would address Hunter Biden’s trial, accused the president of using his executive order on immigration to distract from the case.

“Crooked Joe Biden will do anything to distract from Hunter’s trial and the fact his family has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine. The Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit,” said Trump senior adviser Jason Miller.

It’s a strong contrast to Trump’s previous criticism of Hunter Biden. Last year, Hunter Biden’s attorneys sent the former president a cease-and-desist letter demanding an end to his social media posts out of fear it would incite violence against Hunter Biden and his family.

One reason Trump may be silent so far is that Hunter Biden’s criminal cases (he’s also set to go on trial in the fall in California on tax charges) aren’t a major electoral issue like immigration or the economy galvanizing voters across the country.

“My general view is that if Trump’s to win, it will be on the strength of people wanting to fire Biden over inflation, immigration, and just being too infirm to perform,” said Scott Jennings, a former political adviser to George W. Bush. “The more he’s focused on that the better off he is, in my opinion.”

But Trump’s stance is not that different from President Joe Biden’s. The White House does not have a staffer in Delaware nor any sort of rapid response or war room. Biden will follow the trial from overseas — though close advisers are hopeful that the international travel will provide something of a distraction, according to three people familiar but not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations.

Updates will come from calling and texting family members who spend time in the courtroom, and he will continue to reach out to Hunter himself, the people said. As he often does, the president is expected to check with relatives and friends who are with his son to see how he is faring, the people said.

Biden will also watch some of the media coverage of the trial on his trip to Europe, including aboard Air Force One while traveling to France. He has a relatively quiet day once first reaching Paris on Wednesday but will then have a busy schedule, including major set-pieces seen as key to his campaign.

Aides hope the packed schedule — and the time difference — will help Biden obsess a little less about the trial, according to the people. But advisers know it will never be far from his mind.

"He is a dad no matter what job he has or where in the world he is," said one of the people, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. "He'll always be thinking and worrying about Hunter."

For years, Hunter Biden has been at the center of Republican scrutiny — and attacks by Trump — because of foreign business dealings and his father. The Republican impeachment inquiry of Biden has focused on allegations he profited off his son’s foreign business deals when he was vice president, although they have yet to uncover any impeachable offenses, and the inquiry has largely stalled out.

James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee who has led the probe, interviewed Hunter Biden and the president’s brother, James Biden, behind closed doors, but so far there has not been any evidence linking their work with the president. Biden has maintained that he never spoke with his son about his overseas business deals.

The president has repeatedly come to the defense of Hunter Biden, such as when Trump attacked Hunter Biden’s substance abuse and business dealings in the 2020 presidential debate. Trump had been impeached the year before for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after witnesses claimed he was trying to pressure the president of Ukraine to announce an investigation into the Bidens and a natural gas company, Burisma, where Hunter Biden had served on the board. Trump was acquitted on both counts by the Senate.

In 2020, Hunter Biden was a frequent topic for Trump on the campaign trail, where he would ask, “Where is Hunter?” call him a “loser,” and discuss coverage in the New York Post about the incriminating “laptop from hell.” But out on the campaign trail in 2024, Hunter Biden is rarely discussed.