5 takeaways from Biden’s first post-presidency interview

President Joe Biden stepped back into the political spotlight on Wednesday with his first post-presidency interview, sitting down with BBC’s Nick Robinson.

The pair discussed NATO, the war in Ukraine, Donald Trump’s first 100 days back in office and whether or not Biden believes he stepped out of the 2024 election campaign too late.

Of Trump, JD Vance and Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s fiery Oval Office discussion at the end of February, Biden said, “I found it sort of beneath America, the way that took place.”

He added, “And the way you talk about now, well it’s the Gulf of America, maybe we’ll have to take back Panama, maybe we need to acquire Greenland, maybe Canada should be — what the hell is going on here? No president ever talked like that?"

“We’re about freedom and opportunity, not about confiscation,” Biden said.

Biden does not believe he stepped out of the campaign too late

Robinson asked Biden if he left the presidential campaign too late in the election cycle, and Biden responded, “I don’t think it would have mattered. We left at a time when we had a good candidate. She was fully funded.”

Trump ended the race with 312 electoral votes and a majority of the popular vote.

Harris spent $1.5 billion in her 15-week campaign, per The New York Times, while Trump spent $1.4 billion in his 103-week campaign, per Open Secrets.

“And what happened was … I meant what I said when I said I was ready to hand this to the next generation, the next generation of government, but things move so quickly that it made it difficult to walk away. It was a hard decision, but I think it was the right decision. I think that it was just a difficult decision," Biden said.

Biden reiterated the prospect of dropping out sooner, saying, “I don’t know how that would have made much difference.”

Biden: ‘Trump is not behaving like a Republican president’

When originally asked if Biden believed Trump was “behaving like a king,” the former president declined to comment, but added, “He’s not behaving like a Republican president.”

The former president went on to assess the state of the U.S. right before Trump was inaugurated.

“When I left office, we had created more jobs than any president in the history of the United States in one term, our economy was roaring, we were moving in a direction where the stock market was way up, we were in a situation where we were expanding our influence around the world in a positive way, we were increasing trade, we regained control of what we invented — the control of the future of computer chips — we were in a situation where there was growth, opportunity ..." Biden said.

Then commenting on Trump’s first 100 days in office, Biden said, “I don’t see anything that was triumphant.”

Biden said there is a need for NATO

During his administration, Biden aided Finland and Sweden in accession into NATO, and during the interview, he criticized the Trump administration for not prioritizing the military alliance.

While media groups have speculated that Trump will remove the U.S. from NATO during his presidency, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has maintained that the U.S. “remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe. Full stop,” per his speech at the Ukraine Defense Contract Group in February.

However, the Trump administration says it “will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency. Rather, our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security.”

Meanwhile, Biden said the prospect of NATO dying is a “grave concern.”

“It would change the modern history of the world if that occurs,” he explained. “We are not the essential nation, but we’re the only country with the capacity to bring people together, to lead the world, and otherwise, you’re going to have China and the former Soviet Union Russia stepping up.”

Biden added that NATO “saves us money overall.”

Does Trump really pose a threat to democracy?

Biden said he believes there is a greater threat to democracy now then at any time since the Second World War.

“Look at the number of European leaders and European countries that are wondering, what do I do now? What is the best route for me to take? Can I rely on the United States? Are they going to be there?” Biden said.

He continued, “Instead of democracies expanding around the world, they’re receding. And democracy is — every generation has to fight for it."

BBC asked if Biden agrees with claims from the Trump administration that European countries are freeloading off the U.S. with NATO.

“No, they don’t have a point,” Biden said. “Almost all of them are 2% right now, but what they’ve done is, you know, when we were attacked, what happened on 9/11? They all responded, supported us. Look, imagine there being no NATO. Do you think Putin would have stopped at Ukraine? Do you think Putin would have stopped, I just don’t understand how they don’t see there are benefits from alliances.”

Biden called Trump’s handling of the Ukraine war ‘modern day appeasement’

Putin’s attack on Ukraine foreshadows a similar future for other former Warsaw Pact territories, Biden said, and he defended his administration’s approach of providing Ukraine with military aid.

“He believes in historical rights to Ukraine. What this man wants to do is reestablish the Warsaw Pack,” Biden said of the Kremlin.

Biden added he’s afraid that countries situated along Russia’s boarder will give up some of their land to Russia.

Given the criticism that Biden held Ukraine back from being able to win the war by refusing to give long range weapons, the former president said, “We gave them everything they needed to provide for their independence, and we were prepared to respond more aggressively if Putin moved again, but this is a tricky thing.”