RIO DE JANEIRO — President Joe Biden is walking away from back-to-back summits with the near-certain prospect that his policy agenda and efforts to promote international cooperation will collapse once Donald Trump takes office in less than two months.
In meetings with foreign leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in Peru and the G20 meeting here, Biden stuck to his script and avoided any public mention of Trump. But the reality of the situation was underlined by the fact that he left without holding the usual press conference or even giving a single one-word answer to journalists’ questions.
In public remarks with other world leaders, he acknowledged that it was “no secret” that he would leave office in January. But he never publicly said the name of his predecessor-turned-successor out loud.
Reporters saw the 81-year-old president for only a limited time: at the start of the opening sessions of the summits and for brief remarks during meetings between leaders. Biden — who dodged questions about his mental acuity for months until the disastrous presidential debate in June that ended his campaign for a second term — initially seemed unlikely to attend the APEC leaders dinner but eventually went.
The president muddled through the meetings, sometimes making small talk and joking with the officials in the room. Trump’s victory, which many saw as a rejection of Biden’s foreign policy and broader support for international alliances, turned what could have been the capstone of his decades-long career into a largely empty exercise.
Biden’s decision to largely avoid the press since the Nov. 5 election has laid bare the challenge the president and his top aides face in containing the damage — both at home and abroad — that Trump’s victory has inflicted on his legacy and credibility, especially while members of his own party argue that Biden bears some responsibility for Trump’s return to power.
World leaders here have been careful about how they talk about Trump publicly, especially as he has indicated he will play hardball on the international stage to advance US interests and has a track record of making unpredictable moves on the field of foreign policy.
Biden was left out of a group photo of G20 world leaders on Monday, although a senior administration official said the photo was taken earlier than planned and that the president missed it due to “logistical issues.” Although Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also missed the photo, Biden’s absence was a symbolic suggestion that the world has already put his presidency behind him.
France’s Emmanuel Macron did not mention Trump by name in a speech in Rio on Monday. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also did not mention the president-elect in his speeches to the public. And British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was careful not to pillory an ally when asked by Donald Trump Jr. about criticism of support for Ukraine, deflecting by talking about the need to counter Russia.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who met Biden in person in Peru, was advised to play golf for the first time in eight years to help develop chemistry with Trump, the presidential office told local media last week .
However, there were also some bright spots for the president during his trip. After Biden met one-on-one with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Saturday, the White House announced that the two leaders had reached an agreement to prevent artificial intelligence from gaining control of nuclear weapons systems and were making progress toward of the release of the two American leaders. citizens behind bars in China who, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have been ‘wrongfully detained’.
On Sunday, Biden also became the first sitting US president to visit the Amazon rainforest, taking a helicopter ride near the city of Manaus and visiting a nature reserve, where he signed a proclamation declaring November 17 as International Day of Conservation.
For six days, Biden met behind closed doors on the sidelines of two global summits with at least six foreign leaders. His senior aides, meanwhile, tried to downplay the role Trump played in the president’s conversations.
After Biden’s meeting with the Japanese prime minister and the South Korean president, a senior administration official, granted anonymity to speak about the discussion, said the “name of the president-elect did not come up.” Even Trump’s relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, undoubtedly a source of concern for South Koreans, was not discussed, according to the official. When asked by another official whether Trump was discussed during the president’s meeting with the Peruvian leader, the official said: “Not explicitly, no.”
A third official, speaking Sunday to the traveling reporters huddled under trees in the Amazon rainforest, was unwilling to acknowledge that Trump would likely roll back as much of Biden’s climate agenda as he could.
“Who knows? Maybe he’ll come here and see the forest and see the damage done by drought and other things and change his mind about climate change,” said the official, looking hardly convinced by his own words.
The official was one of several who the White House offered to speak to reporters during the president’s trip abroad, most of whom did so on condition of anonymity and not on record or on camera.
The White House defended Biden’s lack of press involvement. Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement that Biden has “extensive contact with the press — including through more than 630 questions and answers during his time in office and more than 50 interviews this year.” During the flight to Peru, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted that Trump did not host a post-election press conference after losing in 2020. She also said Biden “regularly answers questions from all of you, and he will continue to do so.” dealing with the press. … Stay informed. He will continue to do that.”
But suggestions that he would communicate with reporters during his time in South America did not materialize. After wrapping up his final meeting in Rio on Tuesday afternoon, Biden walked straight past the traveling press and onto the steps of Air Force One on his way to Washington, DC, without speaking meaningfully to the press corps during the trip.
He ignored repeated invitations from the reporters traveling with him to discuss Trump’s election and explain his message about the incoming administration to world leaders. Some reporters even, without luck, resorted to holding up handwritten signs to entice the president to come talk to them as he traveled to the Amazon rainforest on Sunday between the two summits.
“Why are you hiding from the press, sir?” an irritated reporter shouted at Biden from a few feet away as he landed in Rio on Sunday evening.
