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An unlikely internet hero has emerged out of nowhere in recent weeks, one who is managing to make a name for himself through his willingness both to own his troubled past and to “say it like it is” — it usually being Donald Trump’s monarchical pretensions, God-like conception of himself and use of the American presidency for personal gain.
Even more unlikely, the man whom X users are now describing as “based”, a “generational shitposter” and a “straight up . . . Maga whisperer” was once one of the most notorious objects of their condemnation and scorn. Those who previously derided him as a “degenerate that should be in prison” from a “scum family” are now lauding his love for his father and inviting him on to their podcasts for cosy bipartisan chats.
I am talking, of course, about the only surviving son of the 46th president: 56-year-old disbarred attorney, maximalist painter, recovering drug addict and America’s most infamous “failson”, Hunter Biden. His successful internet-based reinvention was not, I must admit, on my “2026 bingo card”, as they say. But I have to hand it to him: the man knows how to troll with the best of ’em.
“I am officially nominating Donald J Trump (@realDonaldTrump) for the Nobel Peace Prize. No President in History has ended the same war so many times,” Biden Jr posted last week in a not-too-subtle dig at the president’s incessant whining that he deserves to win the prize, and his repeated claims to have ended the Iran war. Biden returned to the subject on Wednesday. “OMG! You are not going to believe this,” he posted. “The war with Iran is NOT over. I’d like to withdraw my nomination.”
When long-term Trump adviser and convicted felon Roger Stone claimed that George Conway, the ex-husband of Trump’s former counsellor Kellyanne Conway, had spent $1mn per vote during his unsuccessful bid for Congress earlier this year (he had apparently spent $6mn on 6,000 votes, so Stone was out by a factor of 1,000), Biden snapped back: “Is this the same math you morons used to claim the election was stolen.” When one X user posted that “Hunter Biden is still a meth head,” he corrected him. “You mean crack head.”
I don’t agree with all of Biden’s political commentary — such as when he calls fiat currency “a sham” or goes along with Candace Owens’ claims that Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the attempts on Trump’s life were the result of “psyops” during his appearance on her podcast. But some of it is compelling, particularly his calling out of the sleaze of this president and his own progeny.
“I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I know @realDonaldTrump and family did,” Biden posted on X last Sunday. “250 years ago we declared independence from a king who ran the colonies as a family business. In just 18 months the Trumps have made King George look like an amateur,” he continued, before listing a whole slew of lucrative and ethically dubious business dealings the president’s family has been involved in during his second term.
Biden appears able to cut through to those who might usually dismiss anything that a dynastic Democrat or Trump-basher might say — particularly one with his surname. His ability to do so is one reason he is now being touted as a potential presidential contender. While that might sound like a stretch, stranger things have happened. And even if it is, he is nonetheless displaying several qualities that the Democrats could learn from.
Like Trump, Biden is not portraying himself as any kind of moral exemplar, and is owning his past rather than trying to sugarcoat it. As he wrote this week in his newly launched “Where’s Hunter” Substack, “when there is nothing left to hide, something quiet begins to return . . . The permission to stand inside your own life, the whole of it, including the parts that don’t reconcile, and to find that the ground holds.”
He is also — and this is not like Trump at all — unusually willing to show his vulnerability. He combines his trolling with videos of himself talking about being grateful “for all of it” or painting as he talks about his recovery from addiction. Just as importantly, he is willing to engage with people with whom he has profound political disagreements.
What it comes down to is this: Biden is a nepo-baby, but he manages to come across as a real, flawed and often quite funny human being. There might be more to politics than coming across as authentic. But in a world of profound political distrust, in which character often counts for more than policy, it’s not a bad place to start. Particularly for a party that often struggles to communicate outside of its own bubble.
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