WASHINGTON – President Biden turned heads on Thursday by jokingly telling African leaders that he plans to visit their continent but may greedily “eat your food.”
The 80-year-old president made a splash by dusting off one among his frequent jokes about being a “poor relative” who greeted him for too long, nevertheless it drew groans from those present over food insecurity in Africa.
“I’m grateful you all made the trip to Washington for this summit, and I’m looking forward to visiting your continent,” Biden told representatives from 50 African nations on the DC Convention Center after hosting them for a White House dinner Wednesday night.
“As I even have told a few of you, you may have invited me to your countries. I said, “Watch out what you would like for, because I’d show up.” Poor relatives all the time show up. The wealthy never show up. The poor come, eat your food and stay longer than they need to.”
Biden added, “Well, I look ahead to meeting lots of you in your countries.”
![President Biden and African leaders pose for a group photo in Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2022.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/biden-african-leader-may-eat-all-food-0003.jpg?w=1024)
![Biden earned over $15 million after leaving the presidency.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/biden-african-leader-may-eat-all-food-0011-1.jpg?w=1024)
The president, who was previously nicknamed “Middle-class Joe,” often jokes that he is nevertheless a poor relative, and First Lady Jill Biden, who raised $15.6 million in revenue in 2017 and 2018 after stepping down as vp.
Biden previously had a way more modest net value, although members of his family earned huge salaries resulting from his ties to him, including his son Hunter, who earned as much as $1 million a yr serving on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma while his father ran the Obama administration’s policy on Ukraine.
Hours after his tongue-in-cheek remark, Biden spoke again on the summit, this time speaking at length about US efforts to assist poor nations in Africa address rising food costs resulting from this yr’s Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We face a world food crisis and nowhere is it more felt than on the African continent. Last yr, nearly 120 million people in Africa faced severe food insecurity, and it wasn’t until mid-2022, when drought hit and food costs soared… that number jumped to 140 million people,” Biden said.
![Biden has joked with presidents that he can](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/biden-african-leader-may-eat-all-food-0007.jpg?w=1024)
![Biden talks to Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has been in office for a total of 38 years.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/biden-african-leader-may-eat-all-food-0002.jpg?w=683)
“This yr alone, the US has allocated nearly $11 billion to humanitarian aid and food insecurity relief – food security assistance, food insecurity assistance – including a dramatic increase within the Horn of Africa. And this afternoon, I’m announcing an extra 2 billion,” the president said.
Biden added that Africa has “huge potential” to make use of its “significant unused arable land” to “feed its people and likewise help feed the world.” He said the U.S. Department of Agriculture would help promote the hassle.
The US president has summoned African leaders – lots of them fabulously wealthy by stealing from their very own people – because the US government tries to counter Chinese invasions within the region.
Mini motorcades escorted by police cars with flashing sirens escorted men to and from their luxury hotels near the White House this week, snarling at Washington’s traffic.
Only Eritrea and the leaders of 4 countries suspended by the African Union for recent coups – Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Sudan – weren’t represented.
President of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has been in office for 43 years, was present despite US authorities working to confiscate $70 million in assets allegedly plundered by his son, since two-thirds of his country’s residents live in poverty.
Cameroonian President Paul Biya, who has been in office for 40 years, also attended the Washington summit, as did Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has been in office for a complete of 38 years, and Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who notoriously bought a house in Paris for 129 million dollars in 2010, a yr after he inherited the presidency from his father, who ruled for 42 years.