Pop that balloon!

Ducking China’s threat makes Biden look weak

Like Joe Biden needed another headache, along comes a Chinese spy balloon like something out of a James Bond movie.

Only Biden does not appear to be riding to the rescue, or doing much of anything about the brazen and unprecedented taunt by the Chinese.

The Pentagon has rejected calls from some lawmakers to shoot it down, saying the debris field from the huge balloon flying over the U.S. could be potentially dangerous to people on the ground.

The minimum Biden could do is cancel Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China, but the president himself was in the bunker — ignoring shouted questions at an event on Friday.

Biden officials say the president wouldn’t take questions about the balloon because they were worried it would overshadow good news about the American economy adding 517,000 new jobs.

Right. Because all the media are focused on the economic news. A strange balloon is spying on the United States, flying over missile silos and air force bases, and we’re supposed to write about jobs?

Perhaps White House officials are afraid Biden will say something to make the balloon crisis worse?

“President Biden took that recommendation (not to shoot down the balloon) seriously — of his advisers, clearly. The president will always put the security of the American people first,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Biden is receiving constant briefings about the spy balloon, according to Jean-Pierre.

But Republican lawmakers say the White House should be doing more than just warning China it will not tolerate this kind of act of aggression, accusing the administration of being soft on China.

Former President Donald Trump even weighed in on the bizarre situation, saying “As President, I took the most dramatic action of any administration to curtail China’s ability to conduct espionage in the United States. And when I’m back in the White House, those efforts will be expanded in a very, very big way.”

“The presence of this balloon in our airspace is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law and it is unacceptable,” the White House spokeswoman said.

The balloon is expected to hover over the U.S. for several days — like a cloud hanging over Biden.

But he can’t stay in the bunker forever.

The presence of the spy balloon is just the latest crisis to test the weak Biden administration. It comes on top of the U.S. expanded involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war and the continued migration of thousands of unidentified migrants flooding across the Southern border.

LARRY MAYER — THE BILLINGS GAZETTE VIA AP A high altitude balloon floats over Billings, Mont., on Wednesday. The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a couple days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down due to risks of harm for people on the ground, officials said Thursday. The Pentagon would not confirm that the balloon in the photo was the surveillance balloon.