Biden says he leaves Trump with a ‘strong hand to play’ in global conflicts

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that his handling of U.S. foreign policy has made the United States safer and more economically secure, arguing that the president-elect Donald Trump will inherit a nation seen as stronger and more reliable than it was four years ago.

Biden trumpeted his administration’s work on NATO expansion, rallying allies to provide military aid to Ukraine fight Russia and strengthen American chip manufacturing to better compete with China during a wide-ranging speech aimed at reflecting on its foreign policy legacy, a week before handing over the White House to Trump.

The case Biden makes for his accomplishments will be clouded and shaped, at least in the short term, by the messy counterfactual that American voters have once again turned to Trump and his protectionist worldview. And he will leave office at a turbulent time for the world, with a series of conflicts raging.

“Thanks to our administration, the United States is winning the global competition compared to four years ago,” Biden said in his speech at the State Department. “America is stronger. Our alliances are stronger. Our adversaries and competitors are weaker. We did not go to war to make these things happen. »

The one-term Democrat took office amid the worst global pandemic in a century, and his plans to repair alliances strained by four years of Trump’s “America First” worldview were quickly tested by international crises: the chaotic withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022and the brutal Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 that triggered the war in the Middle East.

Biden argued that he provided a steady hand when the world needed it most. It has been tested by war, calamity and miscalculations.

“My administration leaves the next administration with a very strong hand to play,” Biden said. “America is once again in the lead. »

The chaotic US exit from Afghanistan was an initial setback for Biden

As the United States completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Biden has kept his campaign promise to withdraw. America’s longest war.

But the 20-year conflict ended in a worrying way: The US-backed Afghan government has collapsedA macabre bombing killed 13 American soldiers and 170 others, and thousands of desperate Afghans descended on Kabul airport looking for a way out before the last American plane took off over the Hindu Kush.

The debacle in Afghanistan was a major setback just eight months into Biden’s presidency from which he has struggled to recover.

“Ending the war was the right thing to do, and I think history will reflect that,” Biden said. “Critics have said that if we ended the war, it would damage our alliances and create threats to our country from terrorism directed from abroad from a safe haven in Afghanistan – neither Nothing else happened. »

Biden’s Republican critics, including Trump, cast it as a defining moment in a failed presidency.

“I’ll tell you what happened, he was so bad with Afghanistan, it was such a horrible moment, the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country,” Trump said in his speech. only 2024 presidential debate with Bidenjust weeks before the Democrat announced that he end his re-election campaign.

Biden’s legacy in Ukraine may depend on Trump’s future approach

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden rallied his allies in Europe and beyond to provide Ukraine with billions of dollars in military and economic aid – including more than 100 billion dollars United States only. This allowed Kyiv to remain in the fight against the Russian president that of Vladimir Putin a much larger and better equipped army.

Biden’s team also coordinated with allies to hit Russia with a steady stream of shots. sanctions aimed at isolating the Kremlin and making Moscow pay the economic price for continuing its war.

Biden expressed surprise Monday that at the start of the war, Putin thought Russian forces could easily defeat Ukraine within days. It’s an assessment shared by U.S. and European intelligence officials.

Instead, Biden said his administration and allies had “laid the groundwork” for the Trump administration to help Ukraine get to a time when it can negotiate a just end to a nearly three-year-old conflict. years.

“Today, Ukraine is still a free and independent country with the potential for a bright future,” Biden said.

Trump criticized the cost of the war to American taxpayers and pledged to bring a quick end to the conflict.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan argued that Trump, a billionaire real estate developer, should view support for Ukraine through the lens of a negotiator.

“Donald Trump built his identity around making deals, and the way to make a good deal is leverage,” Sullivan said in an interview. “Our pitch, publicly and privately, to the incoming team is to create leverage, to show our staying power, to support Ukraine, and that’s where good business lies. “

Biden’s Middle East diplomacy overshadowed by Gaza devastation

In the Middle East, Biden stood with Israel as it worked to root out Hamas from Gaza. This war spawned another in Lebanon, where Israel mutilated Iran’s most powerful ally, Hezbollah, even though Israel launched successful airstrikes openly in Iran for the first time.

The degradation of Hezbollah in turn played a role when the Islamist-led rebels played out last month. Bashar al-Assad, ousted longtime Syrian leadera brutal element of the Iranian “Axis of Resistance”.

“Iran is weaker than it has been in decades,” Biden said.

Biden’s relationship with Israel’s conservative leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been strained by the huge Palestinian death toll in the fighting, which now stands at more than 46,000 dead – and Israel’s blockade of the territory, which has left much of Gaza in a hellscape where access to food and basic health care is severely limited.

Pro-Palestinian activists have demanded an arms embargo against Israel, but U.S. policy has remained largely unchanged. The State Department informed Congress in recent days of a plan Sale of arms to Israel for 8 billion dollars.

Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East negotiator, said that approach put Iran on its heels, but that Biden would pay a reputational price for the devastation of Gaza.

“The administration has been unable or unwilling to create any sort of constraint that normal humans would consider significant pressure,” Miller said. “Joe Biden lacked the emotional and political capacity to impose the type of sustained or meaningful pressure that could have led to a change in Israeli tactics. »

More than 15 months after the Hamas-led attack that sparked the war, around 98 hostages remain in Gaza. More than a third of them are presumed dead by Israeli authorities.

Biden’s Middle East adviser Brett McGurk is in the Middle East, seeking an elusive hostage and ceasefire deal as the presidency’s clock runs out.

“We are about to see a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago come to fruition,” Biden said.

Trump, for his part, warns that “Hell” will be unleashed on Hamas if the hostages are not released before Inauguration Day.

Sullivan declined to comment on Trump’s threats against Hamas, but said both sides agreed on the most important thing: reaching a deal.

“Both the outgoing and incoming administration agree that a hostage agreement as soon as possible is in the American national interest,” he said. “Having unity of message on this is a good thing, and we have coordinated closely with the new team to this effect.”