Biden says he was steady hand world needed after Trump

As Biden prepares to leave office, he remains insistent that his one-term presidency has made significant strides in restoring American credibility on the world stage and has proven that the U.S. remains an indispensable partner globally. That message will be central to an address he will deliver Monday afternoon on his foreign policy legacy.

Yet Biden's case for foreign policy achievements will be shadowed, at least in the near term, by the messy counterfactual that American voters are returning the country’s stewardship to Trump and his protectionist worldview.

"The real question is: Does the rest of the world today believe that the United States is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world when it comes to our reservoir of national strength, our economy, our innovation base, our capacity to attract investment, our capacity to attract talent?" White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an Associated Press interview. "When we took office, a lot of people probably would have said China... Nobody's saying that anymore."

After a turbulent four years globally, the Democratic administration argues that Biden provided the world with a steady hand and left the United States and its allies on a stronger footing. But Biden, from the outset of his presidency, in which he frequently spoke of his desire to demonstrate that "America's back," was tested by war, calamity, and miscalculation.

Chaotic US exit from Afghanistan was an early setback for Biden

With the US completing its 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden fulfilled a campaign promise to wind down America's longest war. However, the 20-year conflict ended in disquieting fashion: The U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed, a grisly bombing killed 13 U.S. troops and 170 others, and thousands of desperate Afghans descended on Kabul’s airport seeking a way out before the final U.S. aircraft departed over the Hindu Kush.

The Afghanistan debacle was a major setback just eight months into Biden's presidency, one he struggled to recover from. Biden's Republican detractors, including Trump, cast it as a signal moment in a failed presidency.

"I'll tell you what happened, he was so bad with Afghanistan, it was such a horrible embarrassment, the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country," Trump said in his lone 2024 presidential debate with Biden, just weeks before the Democrat announced he was ending his reelection campaign.

Biden's legacy in Ukraine may hinge on Trump's approach going forward

With Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Biden rallied allies in Europe and beyond to provide Ukraine with billions in military and economic assistance – including more than $100 billion from the U.S. alone. This allowed Kyiv to stay in the fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin's vastly larger and better-equipped military. Biden’s team also coordinated with allies to impose a steady stream of sanctions aimed at isolating the Kremlin and making Moscow pay an economic price for prosecuting its war.

But Biden has faced criticism for being too cautious throughout the war in providing Ukraine with certain advanced lethal weaponry in a timely manner and for setting restrictions on their use – initially resisting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's requests for long-range ATACMS missiles deep into Russian territory, as well as requests for Abrams tanks, F-16 fighter jets, and other systems.

Biden often balked before eventually relenting out of concern that it was necessary to avoid escalation that could draw the U.S. and other NATO members into direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.

Trump, for his part, has criticized the cost of the war to U.S. taxpayers and vowed to bring the conflict to a swift end. Biden said Friday he remains hopeful that the U.S. will continue to aid Ukraine after he leaves office.

"I know that there are a significant number of Democrats and Republicans on the Hill who think we should continue to support Ukraine," Biden said. "It is my hope and expectation they will speak up... if Trump decides to cut off funding for Ukraine."

Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland and adviser to Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, said Biden's Ukraine legacy will now largely be shaped by Trump.

He added that Trump just may succeed in bringing what many Americans can accept as "a decent end" to the Ukraine war. "That's not necessarily going to happen, but it could," Fried said. "And if he does, then the criticism of Biden will be that he acted to help Ukraine, but hesitated, dithered, did a lot of hand-wringing, and it took Trump to actually bring about a fair settlement."

Sullivan makes the case that Trump, a billionaire real estate developer, should consider backing Ukraine through the prism of a dealmaker. "Donald Trump has built his identity around making deals, and the way you make a good deal is with leverage," Sullivan said. "Our case publicly and privately to the incoming team is to build the leverage, show the staying power, back Ukraine, and it is down that path that lies a good deal."

Biden's Mideast diplomacy shadowed by the devastation of Gaza

In the Middle East, Biden has stood by Israel as it worked to root out Hamas from Gaza. That war spawned another in Lebanon, where Israel has struck Iran's most powerful ally, Hezbollah, even as Israel launched successful airstrikes openly inside Iran for the first time.

The degradation of Hezbollah played a role when Islamist-led rebels last month ousted longtime Syrian leader Bashar Assad, a brutal fixture of Iran's "Axis of Resistance."

Biden's relationship with Israel's conservative leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been strained by the enormous Palestinian death toll in the fighting – now standing at more than 46,000 dead – and Israel's blockade of the territory, leaving much of Gaza 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 largely remained unchanged. The State Department recently informed Congress of a planned $8 billion weapons sale to Israel.

Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East negotiator, said Biden's approach has put Iran on its heels but will cost him reputationally due to the devastation in Gaza.

"The administration was either unable or unwilling to create any sort of restraint that normal humans would regard as significant pressure," Miller said. "It was beyond Joe Biden's emotional and political bandwidth to impose the kinds of sustained or significant pressures that might have led to a change in Israeli tactics."

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

Biden's Middle East adviser Brett McGurk is in the region, looking to complete an elusive hostage and ceasefire deal as time runs out in the presidency. Trump, for his part, is warning that "all hell" will be unleashed on Hamas if the hostages aren't freed by Inauguration Day.

Sullivan declined to comment on Trump's threats to Hamas but emphasized that both sides agree on one thing: securing a deal.

"Having alignment of the outgoing and incoming administrations that a hostage deal at the earliest possible opportunity is in the American national interest," he said. "Having unity of message on that is a good thing, and we have closely coordinated with the incoming team to this effect."