Joe Biden gets a MAGA welcome as he leaves behind Middle East crisis to raise campaign funds in Donald Trump's backyard

President Joe Biden received a MAGA welcome when he flew into Donald Trump's backyard of West Palm Beach. 

Air Force One taxied past Trump Force One - the former president's private 757 - after landing.

And hundreds of people lined the street with Trump 2024 signs as Biden's motorcade left the airport.

It was a reminder that Trump has made the state his home and political base, spending his winters at his Mar-a-Lago estate. 

The trip includes a campaign stop in Jupiter, just up the road from Palm Beach and where Don Jr has a home, as he raises money for the 2024 reelection.

Then Biden, 81, makes the short hop to Miami for a second event.

He has made little effort so far to try to win Florida, which was once a swing state but is now considered solid Republican territory. 

The campaign swing comes against a backdrop of worsening crisis in the Middle East and as Biden and his top advisers weight strikes against Iran-backed militias, and as his administration weathers intense criticism that it should have done more to deter Tehran.

Trump supporters lined up as the president's motorcade made its way from West Palm Beach airport to Jupiter in Florida for a campaign fundraising event

The White House put out an image of President Biden meeting with his security team, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on Monday as the administration prepares to respond to an attack on a U.S. base in Jordan

From left to right: Spc. Kennedy Sanders, Sgt. William Jerome Rivers and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett. The three U.S. Army Reserve soldiers from Georgia were killed by a drone strike on Sunday

At the weekend an Iran-backed suicide drone killed three American soldiers at a remote base near Jordan's border with Syria.

The victims were named on Monday as specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, specialist Breonna Moffett, 23, and sergeant William Rivers, 46.

Iran-backed militias, calling themselves the Axis of Resistance, have also launched more than 160 strikes on US targets since the October 7 terror attack by Hamas.

However, Biden must weigh any response to try to avoid triggering an even worse confrontation with Iran. 

'We are not looking for a war with Iran. We are not looking to escalate the tensions any more than they already have been escalating,' said White House national spokesman John Kirby Monday.

'That said, this was a very serious attack. It had lethal consequences. We will respond, and we respond appropriately.'

Meanwhile, Biden will be in Florida. He lost the state by more than three points to Trump in 2020.

Even if the state is not needed for Biden to win, he needs cash from its well-heeled donors. 

On Tuesday morning, Biden will board Air Force one for a campaign trip to Florida

Hosts for Biden's Miami fundraiser include Biden Victory Fund national finance chair Chris Korge, according to Reuters. The Palm Beach hosts include lawyer Sean Domnick. 

He will be followed to Florida on Wednesday by Nikki Haley, the last remaining challenger to Trump. She will be holding fundraisers in southern Florida, ahead of the next meaningful contest in her home state of South Carolina later in February.

The state may not be completely out of reach to Democrats in November, according to Kevin Wagner, a political science professor at Atlantic University,

He said the high number of independents would help Biden as would the inability of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump's former rival for the GOP nomination, and the legislature to ease skyrocketing housing prices.

'The issues people are focused on are going to be different, the candidates are going to be different" than 2022, he told the Associated Press. 

'The assumption that Florida will necessarily be an easy victory for Republicans is questionable.'