Biden calls Trump an ‘old pal’ of Putin’s, says ‘Moscow and Mar-a-Lago’ aligned

President Biden on Tuesday accused his predecessor Donald Trump of being an “old pal” of Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin — telling a gathering of Democratic donors that “Moscow and Mar-a-Lago” are aligned.

The 81-year-old president accused his likely 2024 GOP rival of being a Putin stooge despite similar past attacks involving Russia failing to turn up evidence.

“This weekend Trump was embracing his old pal Putin. Trump even quoted him this weekend. That’s no surprise. After all, there’s a lot of agreement between Moscow and Mar-a-Lago,” Biden said at the closed-door event with Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore in Bethesda.

Biden told donors that “the future of American democracy” is at stake in next year’s election.

The president accused 77-year-old Trump of “embracing his old pal” Putin in an apparent reference to a New Hampshire campaign speech in which Trump cited Putin’s remarks on four criminal cases that are pending against him.

“Vladimir Putin of Russia says that Biden’s — and this is a quote — ‘politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy,’” Trump said at the Saturday rally.

His spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Journalists attending Biden’s remarks at campaign fundraisers are not allowed to distribute audio or video of his comments, delaying dissemination of the full context.

Biden slammed Trump for being too close to Putin as the former president vows to quickly negotiate an end to Russia’s stalled invasion of Ukraine if he retakes the White House.

Democrats previously accused Trump of being in cahoots with the Kremlin after Russian hackers allegedly stole and published emails that were embarrassing to 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, contributing to Trump’s upset victory in that year’s election.

The perception was bolstered when Trump as president appeared to accept Putin’s denial of responsibility for the hacks at a 2018 press conference in Helsinki.

More than half of Trump’s four-year term was dominated by investigations by the FBI and then special counsel Robert Mueller into whether Trump colluded with Russia to win the White House — with the exhaustive and leak-riddled inquiries ultimately turning up no proof.

Trump routinely points to that exoneration while arguing that he’s the victim of a long-running “witch hunt” by an entrenched establishment of Democratic-allied federal officials.

Trump currently leads Biden in most national and swing-state polls, but his many trials next year add an unprecedented variable to the race.

Trump is the first former president to face criminal charges — in two cases for challenging his 2020 defeat to Biden, and also for allegedly mishandling classified records at his Mar-a-Lago resort and allegedly falsifying business records with 2016 hush money payments.