Biden offers briefest of smiles and briefest of comments on Trump’s 2024 announcement

President Joe Biden shrugged off news of Donald Trump’s presidential run during his visit to Bali on Wednesday, offering the briefest of comments about his possible 2024 opponent.

He was asked if he had any reaction as he toured a mangrove forest with other world leaders.

He shared a smile with President Emmanuel Macron of France before saying: ‘Not really.’

Then he returned his attention to the mangroves during a visit hosted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Yet his lack of interest was belied by an immediate fundraising email to ask supporters for cash to help defeat Trump. 

‘We won in 2020 and 2022 because you  donated your hard-earned time and money to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans,’ said the email, signed by Biden.

‘Will you make your first $7 donation of the year to the [Democratic National Committee] now?’

Minutes earlier, Trump told an audience of supporters that he was launching a 2024 run to return to the White House and make America ‘great and glorious again’

It came during a busy morning for Biden on the final day of his around-the-world foreign policy blast.

Earlier he convened an emergency meeting with N.A.T.O. allies to discuss an explosion in Poland, which Warsaw said was caused by a Russian missile.

Meanwhile, former President Trump was announcing a 2024 run at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. 

‘In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,’ he told several hundred supporters and club members.

‘I am running because I believe the world has not yet seen the true glory of what this nation can be.’

He used his platform to take aim at Biden’s foreign policy.

‘The United States has been embarrassed, humiliated and weakened for all to see,’ he said.

He blasted Biden for the hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying it cost the nation credibility around the world

‘Enemies are speaking about us with scorn and laughter and derision,’ he claimed.  

And he went much further than Biden and his cautious line on waiting for the results of an investigation into the explosion in Poland. 

‘Even just today a missile was sent in probably by Russia to Poland, 15 miles into Poland,’ Trump said. 

Two people died in an explosion about five miles from the Ukrainian border as Russia launched a massive missile bombardment against targets in Ukraine.

Biden said it was too early to say that Russia was responsible for the deaths in Poland.

‘There is preliminary information that contests that,’ he told reporters outside his hotel after crisis talks with allies. 

‘I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate but it is unlikely in the … trajectory that it was fired from Russia, but we’ll see.’