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Former President Joe Biden has openly criticized President Donald Trump on a wide range of issues in his first interview since leaving the White House.
Some shit you should know before you read: If you’re unaware, it has long been a tradition in American politics for former presidents to refrain from publicly criticizing their successors. Presidents like George Bush upheld this custom, choosing not to comment on Obama’s presidency, even amid significant policy disagreements. Similarly, President Jimmy Carter refrained from public criticisms during his successors’ terms. However, this tradition has frayed in recent years. President Obama broke his silence in September 2018, during a speech at the University of Illinois, where he criticized President Trump’s rhetoric and approach to governance. President Trump also broke the norm after he began openly attacking President Biden shortly after he took office in January 2021, particularly criticizing his handling of immigration, the COVID-19 pandemic response, and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
What’s going on now: In an interview with the BBC, former President Joe Biden criticized President Trump’s foreign policy, describing it as dangerously out of step with American values. Biden took issue with Trump’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, calling it “modern-day appeasement” and warning against rewarding aggression. “Anybody who thinks he’s going to stop is foolish,” Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also said it was unbelievable that Trump suggested Ukraine should cede territory to Russia in pursuit of peace, adding, “I just don’t understand how people think that if we allow a dictator, a thug, to decide he’s going to take significant portions of land that aren’t his, that that’s going to satisfy him.”
Biden also took aim at Trump’s handling of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which resulted in a heated confrontation in the Oval Office. According to Biden, the meeting—intended to finalize a rare mineral deal tied to the broader Ukraine-Russia peace efforts—ended in a shouting match between Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Zelensky, with no resolution reached at the time.
Biden also condemned Trump’s talk of acquiring foreign territories like Greenland and the Panama Canal, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” He said, “What the hell’s going on here? What president ever talks like that? That’s not who we are.”
Addressing his own role in the 2024 presidential race, Biden dismissed the notion that he left it too late. “I don’t think it would have mattered,” he said, adding that Vice President Kamala Harris was “a good candidate” and “fully funded.” When asked if he had any regrets, Biden replied simply, “It was just a difficult decision.”
