Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Will Joe Biden be good for Britain? Here's what my time with him in Washington taught me

Will Joe Biden be good for Britain? Here's what my time with him in Washington taught me

From what I learned as the UK’s ambassador to the US, he’s a pragmatist. But relations could be derailed by a no-deal Brexit
A few days after Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, I called on his campaign director, Steve Bannon, in his Washington townhouse near the Capitol. Bannon was then at the height of his powers: the self-proclaimed architect of Trump’s triumph, chief strategist and senior counsellor to the incoming president, the man always “in the room”.

We did the business quickly: getting Bannon’s support for a Theresa May visit to Washington a week after inauguration. To spin out the meeting, I asked him about rumours of his links to some of Europe’s far-right parties: the Front National, Alternative für Deutschland, Lega Nord. Bannon feigned surprise at the question: “of course” he was talking to them.

They were part of the great populist wave that was sweeping over western democracies, capitalising on the complacency and corruption of ruling elites, and already cresting with Brexit and Trump’s election. Next stop would be a victory for the Front National in the French elections in May 2017.

It didn’t happen. Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen. And Bannon himself was out of the White House within eight months. The New York Times claimed that Rupert Murdoch had persuaded Trump to fire him. I suspect it was as much about a Time magazine cover: a photo of Bannon under the headline “The Great Manipulator”.

And Trump never had much time for Bannon’s populist wave shtick, implying as it did that Trump’s election was a matter of historic inevitability. In Trump’s mind, he wasn’t swept along in the wave, he was the wave.

But the conversation presciently foreshadowed the wild ride that was the Trump presidency: a rollercoaster drawn by Escher, composed solely of descents. In the British embassy, we experienced it daily. Wake up one morning and he has, overnight, banned visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries, causing chaos at airports around the world.

Wake up another morning and he has retweeted racist videos by Britain First. Watch a Trump press conference and he says some of those attending a rally of white supremacists and neo-Nazis are “very fine people”; or that a group of Democrat women of colour should “go back” to where they came from.

Follow his international activities and he pulls the US out of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, simultaneously endangering European security and imperilling the planet’s future. On the pandemic, he suggests self-injection with bleach. And for light relief, he tries to buy Greenland.

And now he’s lost. Some commentators are already attributing this to his mishandling of the pandemic. With almost 240,000 Americans dead, this is certainly important. But memories are short: Trump was already on the slide in the 2018 US mid-term elections, when the Democrats retook the House of Representatives on a near 8% swing.

And look at the states he lost this time round. Biden’s victory rested on his flipping Georgia and Arizona, and retaking the rust belt. The former reflects demographic changes – an influx of young, diverse, college-educated voters into the two states – but Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania “coming home” to the Democrats is more about unfulfilled promises.

In his inauguration address, Trump talked of “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation” and promised, in essence, a return to the 1950s: the coal mines reopened, factories back at work. Instead, by 2020, jobs were being lost from the US coal industry at the fastest rate in history; and during the first two years of Trump’s presidency, nearly 1,800 factories closed across the country. The lesson for politicians everywhere: never over-promise.

Yet he got almost 71 million votes, more than when winning in 2016, and is now embedding the narrative that he didn’t actually lose; the election was stolen. So expect him to stay on the scene: a power in the land, a voice on Twitter and Fox News, an open wound in the Republican party. His cheerleaders are already floating a 2024 revenge run.

What should we expect from President Biden? I met him twice: once as national security adviser, when he attended one of David Cameron’s national security councils; and once in early 2019 in Washington, when I called on him while he was deciding whether to run. In person, he radiates decency, warmth and common sense.

He has known personal tragedy, with the death in a car accident in 1972 of his first wife and infant daughter, and the death in 2015 from brain cancer of his son, Beau; so he will empathise with the families of the Americans lost to the pandemic. He is a centrist, with a 40-year career in the Senate characterised by working “across the aisle”.

And he likes to shoot the breeze. My 2019 meeting with him, scheduled for 20 minutes, turned into a glorious hour and a half, ending only when his aides dragged him almost physically from the room to catch a plane.

Expect the lights to burn late in the Biden White House, and Republicans to make concessions to him out of sheer exhaustion. As for his policies, there will be a reset: a return to normality. Domestically, his priority will be the pandemic, and “healing America”.

Internationally, he will take the US back into the Paris climate accord, reaffirm its commitment to Nato, rejoin the Iran nuclear deal and restore longstanding US support for the European project. No more “the EU is worse than China”, to quote the departing incumbent.

As for relations with Britain, I think they may be cool initially. A UK unable to influence EU policies is far less useful to the US. And, as I heard from some of the Obama team face-to-face back in 2016, the Democrats were incensed by Boris Johnson’s comment about a “part-Kenyan president” having “an ancestral dislike of the British empire”.

That said, Biden is nothing if not a pragmatist. So there is a route back, via Britain working with the US to shape the next G7 meeting and the big international climate change conference Cop26, both of which the UK is hosting next year.

Provided, that is, that the government strikes a post-Brexit deal with the EU and does not carry through its threat to break international law by unilaterally rewriting the EU withdrawal agreement. But we couldn’t be that unhinged – could we?
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Trump Says Ukraine Can Fully Restore Borders with NATO Backing
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
×