Each man’s comment caused waves of surprise to cross the faces of his team sitting nearby, including national security advisers and senior diplomats. Then they tried to clarify the two men.
With almost three years apart, the two moments clearly highlight certain stylistic similarities between the current president and his predecessor.
However, as Biden leaves Asia after a darkened visit by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the moments also set out the sometimes dramatic steps the current president is willing to take to show the world that U.S. obligations and leadership have exceeded Trump’s tenure. In any case, Biden’s inclination. to offer a more aggressive stance than his government is willing to take officially reflects the desire to completely erase Trump’s lingering memories, turning the pendulum so far in another direction that the Allies are no doubt of their views. , even when Trump attempts. his team to tell them more muddy things.
Monday was not the first time that Biden seemed to turn US policy upside down. The last time he was abroad, he marked a visit to Poland stating that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” He accused Putin of being a war criminal and committing genocide before anyone was officially declared by the State Department.
Even his comment on Taiwan this week was not the first time since his presidency that Biden has sparked a fight to confirm that the United States has not suddenly changed its policy. He was the third.
Then a White House official said U.S. policy remained the same, and Biden himself told reporters a day later that U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity was still in place.
However, from Biden’s comments, it became clear that, at least in the wider global environment, something has changed: the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. While touring Asia this week, it was clear that the calculation for China has changed as the war progresses.
“The idea (Taiwan) can be taken by force, just by force, is just not appropriate. It will displace the whole region and it will be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine. And therefore it is a burden that it’s even stronger, ”the president said during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
It was a line that many presidents had followed and for which they had been criticized before, including former President George W. Bush, who was later criticized by the then senator. Biden for using belligerent language during an interview in May 2001. Bush had said that the United States had an obligation to defend Taiwan if it was attacked by China with “whatever it took,” including the entire northern army force. -American.
Biden wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece about Bush: “But in this case, its lack of attention to detail has damaged the credibility of the United States with our allies and has caused confusion throughout the Pacific. “Words matter”.
Coming later to his presidency than he would have liked, Biden’s first trip to Asia since taking office seemed designed in many ways to move away from the normative years of his predecessor.
In Seoul, he and new President Yoon Suk Yeol said they would begin exploring an expansion of joint military exercises between their two countries, exercises that Trump ruled out because he believed they were too costly and potentially provocative as he worked to bring Kim Jong Un . at the negotiating table.
When asked if he would meet with Kim, Biden said the North Korean dictator should be “sincere and serious,” conditions Trump did not demand the three times he and Kim met.
In Tokyo, Biden said he was considering easing tariffs on China set by his predecessor, making it clear that they were not his preference, even when an internal debate is concerned with raising them.
Even Biden’s response to Taiwan offered a clear break with Trump’s reluctance to offer U.S. military support to partners and allies abroad, especially when he was trying to cultivate a personal relationship with the potential aggressor.
If there is a pattern for Biden’s self-employment, it is a desire to raise awareness of autocratic regimes even when his government is behind.
Conversely, when Trump made indirect comments about foreign policy that surprised his team, he often took a different direction: siding with Putin on his own intelligence agencies in Helsinki, for example. or pass over the Korean demarcation line for a photo opportunity with Quim.
Both caused sometimes frantic cleaning efforts. In public, Biden administration officials have been left to explain the president’s statements, which provoked anger in Moscow and Beijing. And some foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have warned against climbing.
However, Biden’s indirect comments, especially on Russia’s war in Ukraine, caused only a small consternation behind the scenes, said people familiar with the matter, and focused mainly on advancing the trials. legal. Biden, meanwhile, has said in private that there is little time to waste in calling Putin’s actions clear.
Biden’s aides have said that the president speaks from the heart and does not hide his feelings, which has led to some of his highest-profile adlibs.
His statements that Putin is a war criminal and is committing genocide went far beyond the position of the US government, but his collaborators did not see them as mistakes, but Biden expressed urgency in the face of the terrible situation in Ukraine.
“He speaks from the heart. He says what he hears,” said Communications Director Kate Bedingfield after Biden declared in Warsaw that Putin “cannot remain in power,” a statement that initially sparked an enlightening statement attributed only to a White House official.
These attempts to clean up have sometimes provoked a reaction of their own. Intended to clarify, they often seem to suggest, usually anonymously, that Biden did not mean what he said clearly. For a president whose aides often seem to have too much control over his management, he may feed the idea that he has no command.
In light of this criticism, when the president returned home from a European trip that included multiple cases of his statements forcing his aides to clean up, it was determined that Biden would address the comment himself.
Before leaving the White House, however, his team printed out a card with exactly how he should answer some specific questions about the comment: “He was expressing the moral outrage he felt toward this man’s action,” he said. . “I was not articulating a policy change.”