Did Trump Beef With Biden Over Lemonade? The Viral Rumors, Debunked

American politics has been a bit of a circus for quite some time now. Former President Donald Trump has become famous for his outrageous claims, and prominent politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene have been embroiled in messy public feuds — some thanks to wild assertions of her own, like her theory that Jewish space lasers were causing raging wildfires. Therefore, one could probably not blame otherwise reasonable people for believing a comedic meme that did the rounds on social media back in 2023, which posited that Trump blamed President Joe Biden for the infamous Panera Bread lemonade that was rumored to have killed two people.

The meme, which was posted to several social media platforms, featured images of Trump delivering a speech, with one of the captions underneath reading, "The lemonade didn't kill you when I was president," followed by "When life hands you lemons, Joe Biden kills you with them." While this might sound bizarre, it's not so far removed from Trump's usual rhetoric, and the meme quickly spread like wildfire. "He's hilarious," one Instagram user commented in response. Another added, "This isn't real but it's funny." And, indeed, several news outlets later confirmed that the divisive politician didn't beef with Biden over lemonade (at least, not this time).

The snapshots of Trump featured in the meme were actually taken from an Iowa rally, and upon scouring various transcripts of the former president's speeches, no mention of Biden and lemonade could be found in the same sentence. The controversial candidate did, of course, offer some criticism of the Biden administration during the speech in question, but it had nothing to do with compromised lemonade.

One of the reasons Joe Biden and Donald Trump's supposed lemonade spat didn't seem all that far-fetched is because the two politicians are so often at loggerheads with each other. Biden famously called Trump a "sucker" and a "loser" during their 2024 presidential debate prior to him dropping out of the race (via YouTube). And, while the two were trading insults about who was better at golf, Trump interjected, "Let's not act like children," to which Biden indignantly responded, "You are a child," (via YouTube).

The Democrat hasn't been afraid to take swipes at his former opponent's petty behavior in the past, but he was obliged to issue an apology after telling a crowd to "put Trump in the bullseye" during a speech Biden delivered shortly before the former president survived an assassination attempt. While speaking to NBC News a few days later, Biden acknowledged that it was a poor choice of words, further clarifying, "I meant bullseye, I meant focus on him. Focus on what he's doing. [...] Focus on — on his — on his policies."