President Joe Biden shared an unexpected compliment he received from President-elect Donald Trump when Biden invited him to the Oval Office after Trump won the November election.
“I was very candid with Trump when he was elected,” Biden told USA Today’s Susan Page in an interview published Wednesday. “I immediately invited him to the White House. “I spent two hours with him.”
Despite Trump’s public criticism of Biden’s economic policies, Trump said he actually praised him for his record on the issue when speaking privately.
“He was very complimentary about some of the economic things I’ve done,” Biden said. “He thought I would leave with a good record.”
Biden has cited declining unemployment and measures indicating economic growth, but Americans have appeared deeply dissatisfied with the state of the U.S. economy during his presidency, citing concerns about inflation and the high cost of living. Analysts have said this issue may be part of the reason Democrats lost the White House in November.
Meanwhile, the president praised his administration’s efforts on a bipartisan infrastructure deal, saying that although he did not take much credit for it, Americans will benefit from investments funded by the bill in the coming years. added.
Biden said most of these investments were made in red-state projects now welcomed by conservative lawmakers as part of a strategy to make it difficult for President Trump to cancel projects.
The countdown to Trump has begun
Support HuffPost
Already participated? Please log in to hide this message.
“It’s a way to stick to changed economic policies,” he said.
Weeks after officially handing over power to Trump, Biden also reflected on his legacy.
“I hope history will tell us that I came in with a plan to restore the economy and re-establish American leadership in the world,” he said. “That was my hope. I mean, who knows? And I want it to be recorded that I did this honestly and sincerely and spoke my mind.”
