President Donald Trump accused former Vice President Joe Biden of plagiarizing his recently announced “Buy American” economic initiative Friday.
Biden unveiled the plan, which allocates roughly $400 billion to bring back American companies’ manufacturing capabilities and $300 billion to invest in domestic technologies, during a speech Thursday.
“He plagiarized from me, but he can never pull it off,” Trump told reporters Friday morning at the White House. “He likes plagiarizing. It’s a plan that is very radical left but he says the right things because he’s copying what I’ve done.” (RELATED: What’s In Biden’s Big Economic Plan? Where He May Find Conservative Support (And Where He Definitely Won’t)
“The difference is he can’t do it, and he knows he’s not doing that.”
The Trump administration has been sitting on an executive order along the same lines as Biden’s plan for months. It is the brainchild of Trump’s top China trade hawk Peter Navarro and garnered considerable media buzz throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Navarro echoed Trump’s allegations against Biden on Twitter.
“Deja Vu all over again. Yesterday, Biden plagiarized POTUS Buy American platform,” he wrote. “Biden did same thing as 1988 prez candidate, plagiarizing JFK, RFK, Neil Kinnock, which led to Biden falling from grace and potus race. Bad ethics, poor judgement.”
Deja Vu all over again. Yesterday, Biden plagiarized @potus Buy American platform. Biden did same thing as 1988 prez candidate, plagiarizing JFK, RFK, Neil Kinnock, which led to Biden falling from grace and potus race. Bad ethics, poor judgement. https://t.co/TizGduuEdI
— Peter Navarro (@PeterNavarro45) July 10, 2020
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said earlier in the week that the president will soon sign a host of executive orders taking action against China and boosting American manufacturing.