As former President DONALD TRUMP’s trial opened Monday in New York City, NYT’s MAGGIE HABERMAN posted an update from the courtroom: “Trump appears to be sleeping. His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack.” The post, which immediately went viral on X and was almost instantly the talk of cable news panels, shot around Biden world in emails and text messages between White House, campaign aides and other Democrats close to the administration. “Hitler Pig sleepy,” one individual said on one thread as a caption to Haberman’s post. You read that right: “Hitler Pig.” That moniker, four people in Biden’s orbit told West Wing Playbook, is one that aides to and allies of the president — generally younger, more digitally native individuals, not senior staffers, one person clarified — frequently use to describe Trump. A Google search of the term brings up various images (search at your own risk) depicting the former president as, well, a pig. With a swastika armband. That suggests the characterization started online and was adopted later by people in the president’s orbit. As West Wing Playbook reported earlier this year, President JOE BIDEN is often far saltier about Trump behind closed doors than he is in public, even as his willingness to publicly attack his predecessor and likely 2024 challenger in speeches and offhand comments has grown. After referring obliquely to “the former guy” in the months after taking office, Biden is increasingly willing, if not eager, to deliver sharp, frontal attacks on Trump as the fall campaign draws near — including at a Tuesday appearance in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he spun a tale about a man drowning in debt before delivering the punchline: “I said I’m sorry, Donald, I can’t help.” Still, none of the White House and campaign aides who have referred to Trump as “Hitler Pig” expect Biden to go quite that far. The Trump campaign did not initially respond to West Wing Playbook’s requests for comment, but did so shortly after this article was published. “Joe Biden talks a lot about decency, but he and his staff don’t have a decent bone in their bodies,” said Brian Hughes, a senior campaign adviser. “These ridiculous and gross comments reflect the failure and dishonesty of the entire Biden operation.” Calling Trump “Hitler Pig” is not so much an attempt to inject some levity into private conversations as it is a way to characterize what Biden aides see as one of Trump’s most outrageous behavior patterns, the four people all said. Whenever such revelations hit X, formerly known as Twitter, or the news, Biden aides often send clips around or say to colleagues in the room, “Hey, did you see what Hitler Pig said?” THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists. Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY. Biden urged the House and Senate to swiftly pass the package, adding that “I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends, and we won’t let Iran or Russia succeed.” Biden’s backing of the Johnson plan marks a departure from their insistence that the House take up the Senate’s White House-backed plan — an acknowledgment that it’s likely the closest Democrats will get to approving needed aid to Ukraine and Israel. During his remarks, Biden also pledged to keep United States Steel American-owned in the face of a takeover bid from Japanese-owned Nippon Steel. “U.S. Steel has been an iconic American company for more than a century,” Biden said. “And it should remain a totally American company.” On his way out of town, the Biden team had to make a pivotal call. According to a pool report, the president stopped at a Sheetz, solidifying his support among Central Pennsylvania voters while alienating his Wawa-loyal Philly base. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This WSJ op-ed from President Biden titled “Moment of Truth on Ukraine and Israel.” In the piece, Biden lays out the stakes of both conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, urging the House to pass the national security supplemental. The president presents the case for aid by arguing military equipment sent to the two nations would be from American stockpiles, coming from American suppliers. “We’d help our friends while helping ourselves,” he writes. Biden added that the bill is a “strong and sensible plan,” and that it shouldn’t be “held hostage any longer by a small group of extreme Republican House members.” Communications director BEN LABOLT shared his boss’ piece on X. And in Philadelphia — where Biden will be tomorrow — some Black voters in the city are focused on how his administration’s responses to the conflict are playing out. “To think that this (conflict) is not going to have an impact on Black voters in particular, who connect with this story in a way that maybe other Americans cannot — it would be a mistake to think that it won’t be a problem going into November,” said the Rev. MARK TYLER, senior pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church. “You tell me an investment that the previous administration has made that is even close to what Joe Biden has done,” Burgess says in the ad. “Donald Trump has shown through his history that workers mean nothing to him. Right now, we have the most pro-American worker president in office that we’ve ever had in this country’s history.” THAT WAS QUICK: Senators on Wednesday took up the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, two months after the House adopted the two articles in February. Senate Democrats voted to dismiss both charges of impeachment as unconstitutional, arguing that it failed to meet the bar of a high crime or misdemeanor. Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) looked to swiftly dismiss the charges while Senate Republicans raised several motions to delay — including one from Sen. ROGER MARSHALL of Kansas that would push it to Nov. 6, 2024, the day after the election. This has prompted anxiety that the grants could go unused if not distributed by the end of the year as getting money out is a “huge challenge” that “demands laser focus.” FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: NORMAN ELLIS is leaving the White House where he is a legislative assistant, our DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He has been hired as deputy research director for Senate Majority Leader Schumer. “Maduro and his representatives did not fully comply with the spirit or the letter of the agreement,” a senior administration official said. CLOSE CALL: On Monday night, Israel considered conducting a retaliatory strike on Iran but eventually decided to hold off, Axios’ BARAK RAVID reports. The Israeli war cabinet considered giving the Israel Defense Forces the go-ahead for a strike but opted against an immediate attack for “operational reasons.”