Biden blasts Trump as 'foolish' appeaser of Russia, says first 100 days were no triumph

Former President Joe Biden was deeply critical of his successor, and predecessor, in his first broadcast interview since leaving the White House, saying President Donald Trump's first 100 days were hardly a triumph.

Speaking with BBC Radio 4's Today program, Biden touted his own record on defending the NATO alliance while ripping Trump's stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, which Trump has said he wants to see end quickly. The war broke out in early 2022, a year into Biden's term.

"It is modern-day appeasement," Biden said of Trump's attitude toward Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Anybody who thinks he's going to stop is foolish."

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President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with U.S. President Joe Biden at Trump's inauguration in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)

The Trump administration has signaled Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy may have to accept Russia's control of Crimea and cede some of the Ukrainian land Russia has occupied since its invasion in 2022 as part of a peace agreement. 

"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 said, adding, "I don't quite understand."

Trump has repeatedly said Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine if he had been president at the time, and he's repeatedly heaped blame on his predecessor since taking office.

Relations between the U.S. and Ukraine appeared to hit a low point in February when Trump and Vice President JD Vance blasted Zelenskyy in front of reporters in the Oval Office and suggested he was preventing peace.

"I found it sort of beneath America in the way that took place," Biden said of the meeting, adding he couldn't believe Trump's rhetoric about issues like taking Greenland and making Canada a 51st state.

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Biden said Trump wasn't behaving like a "Republican president" when asked if Trump was acting like an autocrat in office. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

"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."

Biden said Trump wasn't behaving like a "Republican president" when asked if Trump was acting like an autocrat in office. His interviewer said Biden was being "diplomatic."

When questioned about his record, especially with Trump repeatedly criticizing his administration, Biden defended his achievements as president. 

"Let me tell you: when I left office, we had created more jobs than any president in the history of the United States in one term," Biden said. "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 world, increasing trade, we regained control of what we invented … of the future of computer chips." 

President Trump and former President Biden. (Win McNamee/Pool via REUTERS, Getty Images)

Asked about Trump claiming his first 100 days were historically great, Biden said, "I'll let history judge that. I don't see anything that was triumphant."

Trump has blamed Biden for negative economic trends, saying that he "inherited" a sinking economy from the previous administration in April. 

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"It says how bad the situation we inherited," Trump told reporters in April in response to questions about the effect of tariffs on the economy. The president added that "you can even say the next quarter is sort of Biden because it doesn't happen in a daily or hourly basis."