In a gesture to spread holiday cheer, former President Joe Biden shared a family photograph on social media, but keen-eyed users quickly pointed out his near absence from the scene.

The 83-year-old Biden uploaded the festive picture on Wednesday evening, standing with seven family members in front of a Christmas tree.

“Wishing you a peaceful and joyful Christmas Eve filled with love,” he expressed on X.

Observers were swift to notice that Biden, the 46th President, was mostly obscured by his wife, Jill, in the peculiar holiday snapshot.

“I saw this photo and thought – No way that’s real,” one commenter remarked.

He continued, “This looks like someone is poking fun at Joe Biden by photoshopping him into the scene. But no, it’s genuine. It’s from his official account. This is astounding.”

The curious group image had been viewed more than 3.1million times, as of Thursday afternoon.

Online users were quick to point out that Joe Biden’s Christmas Eve group photo had relegated the former US president to the background, with his face partially blocked by wife Jill

Biden was relegated to the background of the family group photo, with part of his face blocked by his smiling wife.

‘Nice of the lady to stand in front of your head Joe,’ one X user wrote.

‘Why are you in the back,’ another asked. ‘Blocked by Jill.’

Others were even more blunt in their assessments, as they took aim at the former First Lady for obscuring her husband’s face.

‘This is a former president of the United States being shoved in the background and half covered up by his wife in his own photo,’ one X user said. ‘It’s [sic] could almost be a joke but I don’t think it is.’

The ‘classy’ move to not feature Biden more prominently on his own profile was also sarcastically noted by online commenters.

‘Ouch,’ an X user posted. ‘Way to shove the family namesake to the back, cover part of his face, then post it to his social media account.’

Instead of the former president, it was Biden’s son Hunter, 55, who took center stage in the Christmas Eve portrait.

‘Hunter is the alpha now,’ a separate user noted.

He was accompanied by his daughter, Maisy, 24, on his right and his wife, Melissa Cohen, 39, standing next to Jill Biden. 

The family shot was rounded out by Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley, 44, and his granddaughter Finnegan, 25. 

Joe Biden was the only member of the photo whose face was partially obscured.

‘I think it’s disrespectful to put the eldest family member in the back of a photo taken for the former president’s social media,’ a user wrote.

Another user agreed: ‘His family buried him in the back of the Christmas photo and then posted it on his own account.’

Commenters asked why the former First Lady was obscuring the 46th president’s head. One user sarcastically said it was a ‘classy’ touch on Biden’s own social media account

Since Biden dropped out of the presidential race in 2024, he has taken a back seat in both his public and political life.

But when he was president, Biden was put in the spotlight for a series of disastrous debate performances and gaffes – including introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as ‘President Putin’, confusing his vice president Kamala Harris with Trump and calling his defense secretary Lloyd J Austin III ‘that black man’.

At the beginning of the month, Biden tripped on his words as he failed to say ‘America’ in a speech.

The former US president was denouncing ‘the many crises caused by this administration’ when he botched the name of the nation he formerly governed.

‘We’re the United States of Amerigotit,’ Biden said. ‘That’s who we are. We’re the US.’

In May, Biden’s post–presidential office revealed he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which had spread to his bones.

Biden completed radiation treatment for the aggressive cancer in late October, and was previously also surrounded by his family during Thanksgiving.