Another day ending in “y,” another Joe Biden gaffe.

While college campuses all over the country are roiling with anti-Semitism and anarchy, Grandpa Brandon is busy making nice to donors. He IS running for re-election, after all. The only thing on his public calendar on Wednesday was a campaign reception at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. And at this event, as reported by Bloomberg News, Joe Biden managed to fit one of those super supportive new shoes of his right into his mouth.

Biden reiterated remarks he made last month linking China’s economic woes to its unwillingness to accept immigration. This time he added Russia, but also longstanding ally Japan, whose Prime Minister Fumio Kishida he welcomed for a summit and state dinner in Washington three weeks ago.

“You know, one of the reasons our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden told Asian American and Pacific Islander donors Wednesday. “The reason – think about it – why is China stalling so bad economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia, why is anyone? Because they’re xenophobic, they don’t want immigrants.”

Uhhhhhhhh…

"Well at least I don't have to answer more questions about why he has yet to speak out about rampant anti-semitism happening all over the country on colleges tomorrow " – @PressSec tomorrow. https://t.co/CyGOr27OPy

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 2, 2024

Let’s just address the political reasons why this Biden gaffe is a particularly bad one. First of all, Japan is an ALLY of the United States, and the president of the United States just insulted them. Yes, the country is currently in a recession, with a weak exchange rate and labor shortages. Japan’s birth rate is also putting the country into dire straits as well, but the declining birth rate has become a worldwide problem. Joe Biden’s solution is apparently to open the southern border and let in all the cheap labor (along with God only knows who else) into the country. And he wants to call Japan “xenophobic” for not allowing unlimited immigration like he does??? Japan, for anyone who hasn’t looked at a map lately, is an island nation. There is no border that anyone can just walk across. Hey, Joe, how has that open southern border worked out for the United States???

4/29: USBP agents in New Orleans, LA conducted a vehicle stop & arrested an MS-13 gang member, Lorenzo Alexander Benitez, from El Salvador. He will be prosecuted for felony re-entry after being previously removed from the US

FY24: USBP agents have arrested 41 MS-13 gang members. pic.twitter.com/JIj9cBzlz3

— Chief Jason Owens (@USBPChief) May 1, 2024

Second, Biden is lumping Japan in with China and Russia. Both countries, to put it mildly, are adversarial to the United States AND to Japan. Japan and Russia do not have an amiable history together, and neither do Japan and China. China, of course, has become much more aggressive in Asia over the last few years, embolded by the weakness that they see in the Biden administration, to the point of letting North Korea shoot missiles OVER Japan itself. For Joe Biden to put Japan on par with China and Russia, at this moment in international politics, is going to create some major waves in diplomatic circles. Antony Blinken is probably going to be making some phone calls today.

Third, Grandpa Joe seems to think that the United States economy is just going swimmingly. Um, he hasn’t been grocery shopping in DECADES. The specter of stagflation is looming. Shall we talk about the price of gas, and how his administration has tapped out the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

Now, let’s look at the claim that Biden is making about Japan – that it is “xenophobic.” By his standards – meaning unlimited, unvetted, unchecked immigration – sure. But by any normal standard?

I’m going to address this as someone who is both of Japanese ancestry and as someone who has lived in Japan. Japan is not so much xenophobic as it is insular. Now, the country has definitely opened up over the last thirty years (aside from Covid lockdowns), and is happy to bring in tourists and export its own cultural products. But there is an “in-club” and an “out-club.” If you are not native Japanese, if you cannot speak Japanese, then you are in the “out-club.” (And yes, as an American of mixed race descent, I was most definitely in the “out-club” – but that didn’t mean that I felt unwelcome or rejected. Quite the opposite, actually – I was applauded for my efforts to recapture what was seen as my rightful heritage.) It’s a highly nativist perspective, but hey, who is Joe Biden to tell the Japanese how to run their country or their economy, or how to change their culture? Why is he pushing very radically progressive leftist Western ideas on a much more traditional Eastern culture? And China and Russia (who wants to pretend that they are Western, but really, they aren’t) are both Eastern cultures whose languages, like Japanese, use a non-Roman alphabet/syllabary. One of the most obvious splits between East and West can be plainly seen in the written language. Eastern cultures can democratize, but they will never become fully “Western.” And to have Joe Biden eat his own foot in calling a completely different culture “xenophobic” because they don’t operate the way he wants to run the United States? The man was never smart to begin with, and now his own lack of tact is simply highlighted with age.

And let’s not talk about the bang-up job he did while hosting the prime minister of Japan for that state visit.

Biden requires his handler-prepared note cards to say "welcome" to the Japanese prime minister pic.twitter.com/4e1pp26US9

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 10, 2024

Imagine another four years of this. How many more allies do you think he can offend between now and the election?

Featured image: photoshop courtesy of Brand X Studio.