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Up until last month, Hunter Biden was most known for being a former president's son whose well-documented substance abuse and legal troubles made him one of the GOP's go-to bogeymen. That changed abruptly on May 19, when Biden reemerged on X and, as if tapping on a virtual microphone, announced his presence. "I'm Hunter Biden. You've never actually heard from me," he wrote. Since then, the younger Biden has posted with a Trumpian frequency, engaging in questions and insults - sometimes both - about his past drug addiction and his famous family. That bag of cocaine found at the White House in 2023? "Most definitely" not his, he said, despite those who insist it was. "I would never have forgotten my drugs," he wrote. A fake image of him with a meth pipe? Biden has some quibbles. "I know this may sound petty, but I can't stand it when people … photoshop a meth pipe in my mouth," Biden wrote. "A crack pipe doesn't have that little bowl at the end. This is why we can't trust AI. Please make the appropriate edit." He ended the tweet with a favorite phrase of the current president. "Thank you for your attention to this matter." In less than three weeks, Biden has gained half a million followers on the social media platform - a dramatic turnabout for someone who once was mostly kept away from the spotlight for political expediency. On X, he is a man unleashed. No subject is taboo. He loves Vermont but says he once "got the s--- kicked out of me" there. He admits he's "broke AF" and wonders how he could make money on X. He encouraged people to go look at the contents of his infamous laptop, a topic routinely invoked by President Donald Trump and his allies to attack the Bidens. "It's been available to anyone and everyone since it was hacked and stolen years ago. Have you been living under a rock," he wrote. He has attacked the "Epstein Elite Oligarch class" for trying to divide the left and the right. After someone lashed out at Biden for being part of the problem due to his father's stature, Biden replied with a photo of himself, haggard and shirtless, apparently in active addiction. "Do I look like I'm part of the elite oligarch class," Biden wrote. "This was taken at a super 8 motel off I95 by the way." And he's speaking openly about his addiction. He posted a video saying he was seven years sober and admitted in another post that during his addiction, he "wanted to commit suicide almost daily." "There was zero glory in my addiction," he said in a response to someone criticizing his new social media foray. "It was truly the most excruciatingly humiliating and degrading experience you could possibly imagine. … Yet here I am. And I am not alone." In other tweets, he shares more mundane thoughts: Dolly Parton should be sainted. His mom hates when he uses profanity. He's excited for "The Odyssey" because he loves Christopher Nolan. Biden could not immediately be reached for comment. He has expressed some surprise at the reception he has gotten on social media. "WTF timeline are we on … I'll gladly take the title," he wrote, after someone dubbed him the "MAGA whisperer" for disarming a Trump supporter. In an interview last month with podcaster Candace Owens, Biden said that he had already walked through the fire by staying sober through myriad political attacks. "Something broke in me in a good way, which was that I no longer have any fear," he told Owens. Online, Biden has alternately teased the possibility of running for president - "Let's take another crack with a Biden," he joked as a possible campaign slogan - and said he has no interest in doing so. But he has dismissed suggestions that Democratic operatives are behind his public reemergence or that his comeback has been orchestrated for political gain. "You got me. I got addicted to crack, blew up my life in vivid detail and then got clean and sober all so I could have a career in politics. You're a genius," he wrote. Asked about Hunter Biden's social media activity Thursday, Trump mused that his past was "not the greatest" but that Biden "could do well" in a 2028 Democratic primary. Later that night, the president posted a seemingly AI-generated image of Biden lovingly sketching a portrait of Trump. Biden maintains he has decided to be more vocal to help others who may be addicted to drugs or who are recovering addicts, even if some can't shake that public image of him. "STFU crack head," one X user wrote to Biden recently. "This crackhead has a lot to say," he replied, "so buckle your seat belt my friend."
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