BURSTFormer President Biden broke his silence on the Trump administration for his first interview since leaving the White House in January.
He sharply criticized his successor for a variety of things, including foreign policy, President Trump’s fiery meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his leadership of the GOP.
Biden also weighed in on his decision to suspend his campaign last year in the waning months of the presidential race.
Here are five takeaways from Biden’s sit-down interview with BBC:
Biden on leaving the race earlier
BBC reporter Nick Robinson asked Biden if he left the 2024 race too late or if the former president believed he should have withdrawn earlier to give “someone else” more time to campaign.
“I don’t think it would have mattered,” Biden said.
Biden highlighted that former Vice President Harris was a “good candidate” who was “fully funded.” He shared that his administration accomplished what it set out to do, and its agenda became “so successful” that it was difficult to "walk away."
“I meant what I said when I started that … I’m prepared to hand this to the next generation, the transition government. But things moved so quickly that it made it difficult to walk away,” Biden said.
Robinson asked if the former president had any regrets about pulling out of the race. Biden said no, he thought it was the right decision.
“It was just a difficult decision,” he said.
Robinson questioned if Biden thought he should have suspended his campaign earlier in the cycle.
“I don’t know how that would have made much difference,” Biden replied.
Biden on Trump foreign policy: ‘What the hell’s going on?’
Biden sharply criticized Trump’s foreign policy, including his apparent intent to acquire other countries, and argued that it goes against America’s core principles.
The former president slammed Trump for renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, for his continued comments about acquiring Greenland or taking control of the Panama Canal, and for saying Canada should become the United State’s 51st state.
“What the hell’s going on here? What president ever talks like that? That’s not who we are,” Biden said. “We’re about freedom, democracy, opportunity, not about confiscation.”
During his time in office, Biden focused on strengthening foreign alliances and has been a defender of NATO. He said it’s a “grave concern” that the alliance would die out and said he thinks it would “change the modern history of the world.”
Biden: Ukraine, modern-day appeasement
Biden also criticized Trump’s approach to ending the war between Russia and Ukraine as “modern-day appeasement.”
Trump has sought to end the war since taking office, but it’s proven to be a more difficult task than he anticipated. Ukraine and the U.S. recently signed a long-awaited mineral deal, but Trump has grown frustrated with Russia as negotiations drag on.
Robinson asked Biden about Trump saying Ukraine will have to cede some territory to Russia in order to achieve a peace deal. Robinson said some people think it’s common sense to say Ukraine must give up some land.
“Do you think it’s not common sense? It’s perhaps modern-day appeasement?” Robinson questioned.
“It is modern-day appeasement,” Biden replied.
The term appeasement refers to the 1930 efforts to appease Adolf Hitler’s move to annex land in Europe with the hope a war would not occur.
Biden urged people to listen to what Russian President Vladimir Putin said “when he talked about going from Kyiv to Ukraine and why.”
“He can’t stand the fact that the Russian dictatorship that he runs, that the Soviet Union has collapsed,” Biden said. “And anybody who thinks he’s going to stop is just foolish.”
Biden on Trump-Zelensky meeting
The former president also criticized Trump for how he handled the February meeting with Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Trump had invited Zelensky to the White House earlier this year to discuss the rare mineral deal, which was just recently signed. It was seen as a critical step toward a peace deal to end Ukraine and Russia’s war.
The meeting resulted in a shouting match between Trump, Vice President Vance and Zelensky, who left Washington with no resolution.
“I found it sort of beneath America in the way that took place,” Biden said about the fiery meeting.
Trump and Zelensky later met in Rome at Pope Francis’s funeral and the mineral deal was agreed upon and signed shortly after that, marking a step forward in the administration’s efforts to end the war.
Biden: Trump not acting like Republican president
Robinson asked Biden if he thinks that Trump is behaving like a monarch than a president, particularly as concerns are raised about Trump’s understanding of the U.S. Constitution and whether he plans on following it.
“He’s not behaving like a Republican president,” Biden replied. The BBC noted that the former president chose his response carefully.
Later in the interview, Biden said he was less worried about the future of America’s democracy than he once was because he believes Republicans are seeing what Trump is doing and are no longer falling in line.
“I think the Republican Party is waking up to what Trump is about,” he said.
While still in office, Biden criticized the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision to grand presidents broad immunity over actions taken in office, saying there are “no kings in America.”