In his first broadcast interview since leaving the White House, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. condemned President Trump’s handling of the war in Ukraine and his dealings with global allies, and defended the timing of his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential campaign. Mr. Biden did not mention his successor by name in the interview with the BBC. But in a departure from an unwritten rule of former presidents, he criticized some of Mr. Trump’s actions as president — including his combative meeting in the Oval Office with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in February. “I found it sort of beneath America in the way that it took place,” Mr. Biden said of the meeting during the interview, which was recorded on Monday in Wilmington, Del., and broadcast on Wednesday.

Speaking to the BBC , the ex-president said the spectacle of President Trump’s handling of the now-infamous Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “beneath America.” In pushing for an end to the war, Trump has adopted Russian talking points and urged Zelenskyy to give up territory. He also criticized Trump for his executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” on government documents, as well as his comments on acquiring Greenland or making Canada into a state. “‘It’s the ‘Gulf of America,’ maybe we’re going to have to take back Panama, maybe we need to acquire Greenland, maybe Canada should be a [51st state].’ What the hell is going on here?” Biden questioned.

Under Mr Trump, the US has shifted its approach to the Ukraine war, with Washington easing pressure on Moscow compared with his predecessor’s administration. Mr Biden said that he found the US president’s Oval Office row with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, “beneath America”. Referencing his successor’s comments about annexing Canada and Greenland, he added: “What president ever talks like that? That’s not who we are.”