Trump Campaign Uses Hunter Conviction To Take Shady Swipe At Biden's Whole Family

The possibility of prison time loomed large over Hunter Biden after he was found guilty on all three felony counts in his gun possession trial as did the inevitability that he was going to be used as a political pawn by his father's foes. Donald Trump had just become a convicted felon himself when Hunter's trial began, so he was obviously going to weigh in on the guilty verdict. However, the Trump campaign's tactic may not be what some people expected to see.

Had Hunter been found not guilty, there's a high likelihood Donald would have used that verdict to moan about how the legal system was rigged against only him. It's even possible this is the outcome he'd hoped for; he could use such a scenario to fundraise and stoke outrage at political rallies. Instead, his campaign found itself constructing a conspiracy with more layers than Donald's favorite slice of chocolate cake. (It's served at Mar-a-Lago, obvs.) On X, formerly known as Twitter, Donald Trump Jr. helpfully shared a statement from his dad's campaign, because not every MAGA adherent is on Truth Social. "This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine," it read in part. So Donald is claiming President Joe Biden threw his own son under the bus as a diversion tactic. It's shady, but a far cry from what he previously said about Hunter.

Donald Trump is essentially trying to have his Mar-a-Lago cake and eat it too with his campaign's response to Hunter Biden's conviction. He and his team have found a way to continue claiming that Joe Biden is a puppet master pulling the strings of the American legal system while also getting the satisfaction of seeing the family member of a political opponent suffer. Ironically, according to former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti, if anyone has reason to complain about a rigged system, it's Hunter. Of the felonies that are now on the first son's record, he tweeted, "Those crimes are rarely charged."

The gun charges aren't the last of Hunter's legal woes, either. He has to return to court in September for a case involving tax offenses. In 2023, Hunter was offered a plea deal on both the tax and gun charges, but it later fell through. A furious Trump thought Hunter was getting off far too easily. Of special counsel David Weiss — who Trump appointed as U.S. attorney in Delaware — the ex-pres wrote on Truth Social (via X), "He gave out a traffic ticket instead of a death sentence. ... Maybe the judge presiding will have the courage and intellect to break up this cesspool of crime." So, while Trump has softened his stance on Hunter considerably, what hasn't changed is his attempt to paint the Bidens as a family of criminals.