Joe Biden likes to say that Hunter Biden is the smartest man he knows. According to an Axios scoop this morning, that opinion is in the minority in the White House. Hunter’s advisers want to set up a legal defense fund to pay for “the most expensive legal team in America,” as Rep. James Comer put it. That way, Hunter could get lots of people to pay for his attorneys while posing as a starving artist.

Sounds good, right? What could go wrong?

Plenty, as Joe Biden’s advisers know:

Top aides to President Biden have clashed with Hunter Biden’s team over strategies for dealing with the legal battles and Republican attacks that surround the president’s son.

The tensions led Hunter — without involving the president’s top aides — to hire prominent lawyer Abbe Lowell in December, as part of a plan to take a more combative approach than the White House and Hunter’s previous lawyer had taken.

Hunter’s team also is moving toward creating a legal defense fund, and hiring ethics advisers for it. High-level Democrats and others are worried about the idea of the president’s son soliciting money to pay for his legal troubles.

We’ll get to the potential problems with a legal defense fund in a moment, but first let’s review why this idea came up in the first place. This would be apparently intended (in part, anyway) to counter an argument in his child-support lawsuit that he’s lying about his status as a ‘destitute’ artist. His baby mama’s attorney scoffed at Hunter’s sudden claims of poverty this week by pointing out that Lowell charges “$855 per billable hour,” and that the high-profile attorney’s presence in the case was “indicative of [Biden’s] influence, prestige, and importance.”

No kidding. Lowell ain’t doing this pro bono, and his sudden addition to the case raises all sorts of questions about Hunter’s claims of poverty. He’s trying to convince the court that, after finally paying $750,000 of the back support he owed, Hunter cannot afford the $20,000 a month in ongoing child support ordered by the court. It’s tough to argue that while “living lavishly” and paying a boatload of high-powered attorneys to handle the lawsuit, the attorney for Lunden Roberts argued.

Hence the idea of launching a charity to pay off Hunter’s legal bills. If donors kicked in to pay Lowell et al, then Hunter can counter the argument Roberts’ attorney made in court. But who will donate, and why?

That’s the issue that has caused the White House to balk, although it’s not the only beef they have with Hunter:

“For this fund to work, it must be extraordinarily transparent and even restrictive by prohibiting foreign citizens and registered lobbyists from contributing,” Anthony Coley, the former top spokesman for the Justice Department who was senior adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland, told Axios.

If you thought Hunter Biden’s art career was a back door for political payoffs, just wait until you see the Hunter Biden Legal Defense Fund! Everyone with cash who wants to curry favor with Biden Inc will start shoveling funds into the Keep Hunter Poor project. The only way it might work if the White House could trust Hunter to keep strict control over donors and avoid embarrassing entanglements.

Bwa-hahahahahaha.

If they could trust Hunter to do that, there would be no Hunter scandals in the first place. He’s more likely to lose a laptop in the midst of a binge containing donor files listing Chinese nationals, and the White House damned well knows it. And let’s not forget how well Hunter managed his financial obligations up to now, too:

One of Republicans’ top priorities in the new Congress is to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings, which have long been of interest to the Republican Party. The matter first took prominence during the 2020 election as the GOP sought to determine whether then-candidate Joe Biden benefited financially from his son’s business dealings, pointing to national security concerns.

Hunter Biden also faces an inquiry from the DOJ into his finances, specifically looking at whether the president’s son violated tax and money laundering laws while conducting business in foreign countries.

He’s done a bang-up job so far! It’s a wonder that the White House doesn’t trust him with a slush fund, right?

Put this on top of the decision to hire Lowell in the first place, the ramifications of which Axios’ Alex Thompson notes a bit sotto voce. Joe Biden is running for a second term, and the last thing he needs is more Hunter headlines all over the media. The White House wanted the Roberts issue handled quietly, for obvious reasons. Instead, Lowell turned aggressive in court and in the media, actually declaring this week that “maybe it’s time the world knows what Mr. Biden is paying” in child support. That immediately brought more focus on what Hunter is refusing to pay in child support, and his absurd rationalizations for balking at paying any more for a child his entire family refuses to acknowledge.

Do you think that the White House really wanted the story line of the week to be “president’s playboy son claims poverty to avoid responsibility for his child”? Er …. no.

This is about as absurd a situation as it gets. Hunter’s track record manages to make his father look somewhat competent in comparison, and that’s saying something. Fortunately for Joe, he’s hired a lot smarter people than Hunter, but unfortunately for Joe, he’s too dimwitted to benefit from it. Expect a presidential endorsement of the legal fund soon, because, well … like son, like father.