During a 9/11 commemoration visit to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, President Joe Biden made headlines by briefly wearing a “Trump 2024” campaign hat. 

The moment, captured on video, sparked a wave of online reactions, as Biden appeared to engage in an unexpected gesture of bipartisan unity. 

The event occurred at the Shanksville Fire Station, where the president had gone after participating in a ceremony at the memorial site for United Airlines Flight 93, one of the four planes hijacked on September 11, 2001.

In a light-hearted exchange, Biden, who was addressing firefighters and attendees at the station, took the campaign hat from a Trump supporter and briefly placed it over his own hat. This symbolic act, as explained by White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates, was done in the spirit of “bipartisan unity,” a theme the president had stressed earlier in the day.

“At the Shanksville Fire Station, @POTUS spoke about the country’s bipartisan unity after 9/11 and said we needed to get back to that,” Bates stated on X. He explained that as a sign of goodwill, Biden handed a hat to a Trump supporter who then suggested that in that same spirit, the President should don his Trump cap. Biden briefly put it on.

The viral image of Biden donning the red Trump hat stirred significant chatter on social media, with some surprised that the video was authentic. Many initially speculated that the footage might have been AI-generated or altered. However, conservative commentators quickly confirmed its legitimacy. “No, this is not AI. This is President Joe Biden donning a Trump 2024 hat,” tweeted conservative writer Carmine Sabia.

Other public figures also joined the conversation, offering humorous takes on the incident. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis joked that even Joe Biden would be voting for President Trump. Meanwhile, Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt’s press secretary Will O’Grady quipped, “Joe Biden is gonna get prosecuted by his own DOJ now.”

The unusual moment between Biden and the Trump supporter came in the context of a somber day of remembrance. President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump attended multiple ceremonies to honor the victims of the September 11 attacks.

During the event, Biden’s comments focused on the need to return to the spirit of cooperation that followed the 9/11 attacks, when political divides seemed to narrow as the country came together to mourn and rebuild. According to Bates, the exchange of hats at the fire station was a reflection of that sentiment.

While the gesture was well-received by some, others viewed it with skepticism or humor, and the incident quickly became a talking point across various media platforms. Conservative political commentators and journalists were quick to share their takes, with Piers Morgan tweeting, “Joe Biden just put on a Trump 2024 campaign cap. This is not a joke… he really did,” adding a playful emoji of a monkey covering its eyes. 

Despite the divisive reactions, the White House made it clear that Biden’s decision to wear the hat was a deliberate attempt to bridge political divides. As Bates explained, the president saw the exchange as an opportunity to reinforce the message of bipartisan unity that had defined much of his remarks during the day.