President Donald Trump managed to keep it civil after his predecessor, Joe Biden, revealed that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer.
Trump wrote in a message on his Truth Social platform Sunday: “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” adding: “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”
The message may come as a surprise to onlookers considering Trump’s long history of volatile comments towards the former president, who he has repeatedly claimed was both physically and cognitively impaired while in office.
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Biden, 82, revealed on Sunday that he saw a doctor last week to evaluate a prostate nodule after he suffered from concerning urinary symptoms, according to a statement. He then received a formal diagnosis of cancer on Friday.
“On Friday, [Biden] was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone,” the statement read. “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”
The Gleason score that Biden’s office referenced is meant to measure how aggressive a cancer is in spreading. The higher the score, the more aggressive and more likely the cancer is to spread at a fast pace, according to the Virginia Oncology Associates.
The former president added that he and his family are reviewing treatment options with his doctors.
In response to the news, Trump abruptly changed his tone on Biden.
Days ago, Trump labeled his predecessor as “hapless and cognitively impaired” in a searing Truth Social post.
He continued to criticize the president in an interview with Sean Hannity aboard Air Force one last week.
Last month, Trump raged that Biden was to blame for “purposefully” allowing “Millions of CRIMINALS to enter our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked” in what he alleged was “the single most calamitous act ever perpetrated upon America.”
Before and throughout the 2024 election campaign, Trump hurled insults at Biden, coining the nickname “Sleepy Joe” and cast him as too old and unfit to lead.
Trump’s campaign staffers reportedly stopped the president from using a more offensive moniker, involving an ableist slur, to attack Biden, though Trump’s camp denies this occurred.
Trump was not the only Republican to offer uncharacteristically kind words to Biden following the cancer announcement.
“I’m sorry to see this news,” wrote Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who once called Biden “a mentally incompetent, feckless, dementia-ridden piece of crap.”
“Cancer is truly awful. My Dad passed away in 2021 with cancer,” she added. “Prays for Joe Biden and his family.”
Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, now a One America News Network host, wrote on X, “we are rooting for President Biden in this fight!”
Conservative British broadcaster Piers Morgan, who praised Trump’s reaction to the news as “classy,” said on X that he planned to block anyone “mocking, celebrating, or playing partisan politics with Joe Biden’s health news.”
In his first interview since leaving the White House, Biden hit back against Trump’s constant criticism in an interview with the BBC.
“What the hell’s going on here? What president ever talks like that? That’s not who we are,” Biden said. “We’re about freedom, democracy, opportunity, not about confiscation.”
The timing of Biden’s announcement comes days before the release of a forthcoming book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios journalist Alex Thompson. The authors report that Biden’s inner circle helped obscure his declining health, enabling the former president to continue his reelection campaign despite significant concerns about his physical and mental state.
Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, And His Disastrous Choice to Run Again is reportedly based on interviews with more than 200 people including Washington insiders, White House staffers, and donors. Its authors report that Biden struggled to remember names and speeches and struggled with physical tasks, but insisted on running nonetheless.
“The bottom line is the White House was lying, not only to the press, not only to the public, but they were lying to members of their own Cabinet, they were lying to White House staffers, they were lying to Democratic members of Congress, to donors about how bad things had gotten,” Tapper claimed in a recent interview on CNN.
