President Joe Biden briefly wore a red “Trump 2024” hat during a 9/11 memorial event in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. The White House explained that this was a gesture of unity between political parties. The event marked the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 attacks, where United Flight 93 crashed after passengers fought the hijackers.
Biden put on the hat while talking to firefighters at the Shanksville Fire Station. A Trump supporter gave him the hat after Biden gave his own hat to the supporter. This brief moment was caught on camera and quickly spread online. Some Republicans used the incident to criticize Biden, questioning his awareness of what the hat symbolized.
A social media account supporting Trump shared a video of Biden wearing the hat, joking that it was a response to Vice President Kamala Harris’s performance in a debate the night before. The post said, “Kamala did so bad in last night’s debate, Joe Biden put on a Trump hat.”
In response, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates explained that Biden’s action was meant to reflect the unity the country experienced after the 9/11 attacks. Bates posted on social media that Biden had talked about the need for bipartisan unity and gave a hat to a Trump supporter, who then asked Biden to wear his Trump hat, which Biden briefly did.
This moment took place in Shanksville, an area where many supported Trump in the 2020 election. The broader Somerset County, where Shanksville is located, voted 78% for Trump over Biden in that election.
Bates emphasized that Biden’s goal was to bring back the spirit of unity in the country, while some saw it as a rare example of goodwill between political parties. Biden, Harris, and Trump all took part in various 9/11 memorial services, remembering the lives lost during the attacks.
