President Joe Biden has once again resurfaced a disputed anecdote from his past—his unverified assertion of having driven an 18-wheeler truck. Biden has recurrently injected embellished or fabricated details into his personal narrative. In 2021, while touring a Mack Trucks facility, he stated, “I used to drive an 18-wheeler, man,” followed by, “I got to.” Likewise, at another event in the same year, while addressing college students studying truck technology, he mentioned, “I used to drive a tractor-trailer,” and went on to say, “I only did it for part of a summer, but I still obtained my license.”
Despite being fact-checked and deemed false previously, Biden reiterated the claim during a recent campaign event in Florida.
A supporter credited him, saying, “The only reason I have a pension is because of you,” likely referring to the Biden administration’s $36 billion aid package aimed at preventing substantial pension cuts for over 350,000 union workers and retirees, including truck drivers. In response, Biden remarked, “Well, we did accomplish that. Anyway, as for myself, I’ve driven an 18-wheeler.”
In 2021, when CNN sought clarification on the claim, the White House clarified that Biden had once held a part-time position as a school bus driver, distinct from operating an 18-wheeler or tractor-trailer. Additionally, during his tenure as a US senator in 1973, he spent a night as a passenger in a cargo truck rather than driving it himself.
Biden’s repetition of the “18-wheeler” claim occurred just a week after he made other inaccurate statements about his personal history during a campaign tour in Pennsylvania.
He asserted that he had “never” earned $400,000 in a year, despite consistently doing so throughout his presidency and earning millions in both 2017 and 2018. Furthermore, he provided a vivid account of his uncle’s death in a World War II plane crash, suggesting it was shot down and his uncle’s body was consumed by cannibals. However, this narrative contradicts the Defense Department’s version of the incident in 1944.