WASHINGTON - As criminal charges against former US president Donald Trump mount, his rival for the White House, President Joe Biden is determined to avoid commenting on the Republican’s legal troubles.

A day after Trump was indicted for the fourth time, for alleged racketeering and election interference in Georgia, Mr Biden is expected to keep his public statements focused on wind power and job creation.

The President – who defeated Trump in the 2020 election, and could face him again in 2024 – flew to the swing state of Wisconsin to visit a factory overflowing with orders for wind turbines and beginning to make electric car charging stations, creating 100 new jobs.

The White House is “certainly not going to comment” on Trump’s latest legal woes, spokesman Olivia Dalton told reporters on Tuesday aboard Air Force One.

Mr Biden is walking a careful line ahead of his possible 2024 rematch with Trump, who remains the front runner for the Republican nomination.

Trump’s refusal to accept his 2020 election loss to Mr Biden has led to the slew of indictments against him – first in federal court in August, and again in the southern state of Georgia on Monday, where he was painted as leading a Mafia-like operation to subvert Mr Biden’s victory.

Well-practised speeches

Mr Biden, 80, has maintained his silence since the Trump was hit with his first indictment – in New York in March, over hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The United States leader knows that the slightest comment he makes will be seized on by rival Republicans as alleged proof that he has unleashed the Justice Department to immobilise his likely 2024 opponent.

Already not enamoured of speaking with reporters, since the beginning of the summer, Mr Biden has carefully avoided them and their persistent questions about Trump.

He now ignores shouted questions before boarding his plane or taking bike rides at his beachside home in Delaware.

The Democrat instead sticks to well-practised speeches on his major economic policies, especially the “Inflation Reduction Act” of August 2022.

While its name was designed to show Americans he was taking action over rising prices, the gut of the policy is incentives for investment and job creation in the renewable energy sector.

Mr Biden says it has already generated US$110 billion (S$149 billion) dollars of private investment.

“In Wisconsin alone, companies have committed over US$3 billion in manufacturing and clean energy investments since President Biden was sworn into office,” the White House said on Tuesday.

‘Sense of honour’

For his 2024 re-election campaign, Mr Biden likely knows he cannot drown out all the noise about Trump’s indictments and coming trials.

But he is betting that ultimately the robustness of the US economy, which has defied predictions of recession, will convince voters to support him.

To set himself apart from his rival, Mr Biden does not see the need to stoke the fires of Trump’s legal woes.

Equally so, he is mute on the problems of his own son Hunter Biden, who faces possible criminal tax and other charges from a Justice Department special counsel appointed just last week.

While that drew big headlines, it was quickly eclipsed by Georgia’s indictment of Trump.

Still, Mr Biden faces an uphill battle.

Opinion polls show he has a low confidence rating among voters, who do not completely understand his economic policy and are put off by his age. If re-elected, Mr Biden would be 86 when he finishes his second term.

Still, the US leader, at the peak of a five-decade political career, is gambling that time favours him and that voters will prefer his personality to Trump’s.

Meeting with voters last week, without mentioning Trump directly, he told them his goal is to “restore… a sense of decency. Just a sense of honour” to the country. AFP