The former US vice president Joe Biden, 75, has apologised for saying that he would have “beat the hell” out of Donald Trump in high school for disrespecting women.

His words had prompted a furious response from the president, 71, who tweeted: “Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!”

Trump has never been afraid to flaunt his supposed physical prowess. His first formal medical exam since taking office in January, reporting that the president was 6ft 3in tall and weighed 239lb, gained him immediate, unflattering comparisons with muscular athletes possessing the same statistics – whose six-packs were juxtaposed in pictures on social media next to Trump’s flabby stomach and ample booty. Still, his macho persona didn’t break. Just last year, he posted a video of himself wrestling the WWE star Vince McMahon with a CNN logo superimposed on to his head (taking on the “fake news” media). Even so, that it was Biden who initiated the aggression, even behind feminist reasoning, is a stark reminder that the chummiest of male politicians are concerned with power and dominance.

Biden has been riding on his post-Obama “ultimate friendship goals” high for going on two years, and is also seen as a frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. His apology seems disingenuous considering it wasn’t the first time he has said that he would like to beat up Trump.

Violent posturing is thankfully something usually absent from British politics, and if Biden wants to secure sensible voters (including feminists ), he’d do well to take a leaf out of our book and rein in the fighting talk.

• Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff is opinions editor at gal-dem.com