Biden struggles to adjust to private life as Trump, Democrats attack
The Washington Post (archive.ph)
By Yasmeen Abutaleb
2025-10-11 19:23:50GMT
Former president Joe Biden leaves church on Sept. 6 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Mega/GC Images)
Since Donald Trump entered the White House nearly nine months ago, most Democrats have wanted Joe Biden to stay on the sidelines — and the former president has mostly obliged.
But behind the scenes, the lifelong politician is uneasily adjusting to a quieter, lower-profile life and remains bitter about being pushed to drop out of the 2024 race, according to interviews with multiple people close to the former president, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private details.
He has also been battling an aggressive form of prostate cancer after a diagnosis earlier this year and is undergoing radiation treatment and hormone therapy, said Kelly Scully, a spokeswoman for Biden.
Biden remains a voracious consumer of news and regularly debates with his small team of advisers in Wilmington, Delaware, on whether to weigh in on Trump’s latest actions and statements — especially the direct, often unsubstantiated attacks on Biden in settings including an address to the United Nations and a rare gathering of military generals.
Biden has largely opted not to respond, choosing to follow the expectation that former presidents seldom talk publicly about their successors.
Historians say Biden’s postpresidential experience is unprecedented not only because of Trump’s attacks, but also because of the degree to which Trump has tried to punish and prosecute Biden and his allies. Few presidents have left office facing such opprobrium — not only from his successor but also from many Democrats who blame him for a devastating election loss. Books that detailed how Biden’s aides tried to hide his fragility during his final year in office have added to the narrative of decline that has shadowed his life after the White House.
The former president still talks with longtime allies such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), according to multiple people familiar with the interactions. He spends much of his time working on his memoir and on the foundation dedicated to building his presidential library.
Robert Salladay, a senior adviser to Newsom, confirmed that Biden and Newsom have spoken a few times this year and “continue to have a warm relationship.” Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders did not respond to requests for comment. Biden hosted Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) at his Wilmington home on Thursday.
Although Biden has been deeply worried about the damage Trump is doing to democratic institutions, the former president and his aides recognize that adding his voice to the conversation could backfire — either fueling Trump or prompting another round of hand-wringing among Democrats about whether he should have run for reelection. When Biden made high-profile appearances early in Trump’s tenure, including on “The View,” some Democrats worried that his reemergence would prevent the party from moving forward.
“I have a lot of respect for President Biden,” said Joel Benenson, a former pollster for the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns. “But any president has to face the realities of when their time has come and gone.”
Benenson added that the decision not to hold an open Democratic primary process in 2024 “put the party through a situation where we suffered because we didn’t have primaries for the election against Donald Trump. … That was the worst mistake the Democratic Party has made in years.” Others say it’s unclear whether Democrats would have won had Biden dropped out earlier.
Those close to him say the gregarious, highly social Biden misses being at the center of the action and has sought ways to stay connected with everyday Americans — the aspect of politics he relished most through his more than 50-year career.
Biden poses for photos at Janssen's Market on Sept. 7 in Wilmington. (Mega/GC Images)
Late last month, for instance, he decided at the last minute to attend Vet Fest, a Delaware celebration honoring those who have served in the military. Biden became an unannounced guest of honor and spoke about his late son, Beau, who served in Iraq, and later bought lemonade from a child’s lemonade stand.
Biden has dropped in on a number of other small events since leaving office. In March, he attended a Model U.N. Conference with high school students in New York. He has dropped in at church services — including one in Wilmington on St. Patrick’s Day and another in Galveston, Texas, for a Juneteenth event — and delivered remarks from the pulpit during a May church service in Philadelphia. He has had a steady number of appearances for Democratic groups, including upcoming speeches in Boston and Omaha.
And he has spoken at a handful of industry conferences for paid speaking engagements. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that he has struggled to attract much interest from companies worried about retribution from Trump, as well as Biden’s advanced age and unpopularity among Democrats. Biden officials said the offers he had received were on par with past presidents.
“More than anything, after over 50 years in public service, former president Biden has continued to enjoy connecting with people in their communities — whether that’s at public events, conferences, universities, festivals, or small businesses,” Scully, the Biden spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Biden and those closest to him have bristled at how Democrats have treated the former president since he left office. Few have defended Biden against Trump’s attacks and many — especially those pondering a 2028 presidential run — have distanced themselves and criticized Biden’s decision to seek reelection.
The most stinging rebuke came from his former vice president, Kamala Harris, who ran against Trump after Biden dropped out of the race. Harris called Biden before an excerpt from her book was released last month in which she said it was “recklessness” to leave the decision to run for a second term up to Biden and first lady Jill Biden, according to two people familiar with the conversation. The exact nature of their conversation is not known.
Biden has been hurt by some of the characterizations of him and his staff in Harris’s book but opted against publicly responding, according to one of the people, and has told associates he wishes Harris well on her book tour.
As Democrats have tried to regroup after sweeping losses in last year’s elections, Biden has worried that the party is not always able to mount an effective response to Trump’s attacks on democratic institutions and his purge of the federal government, according to multiple people familiar with his thinking. He has been most concerned when law firms, universities and media companies have capitulated to Trump, whether through settlements or overhauls of their policies and standards, they said.
Although Trump attacks Biden almost daily, the former president has mostly viewed any response as a distraction from Trump’s broader actions, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Trump still falsely maintains that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
During a speech last month at the American Cornerstone Institute Founder’s Dinner, Trump attacked Biden’s intelligence.
“The very angry, mean Biden — you know, Biden was always a mean guy but never a smart guy,” Trump said. “You go back 30 years ago, 40 years ago, he was a stupid guy. … Not working too well for him right now. When you start feeling sorry for him, remember he was a bad guy.”
Biden made an exception when Trump alleged without evidence that Biden’s aides forged his signature with an autopen — a machine that uses real ink to duplicate a human signature — because Biden was not cognitively capable of signing a document himself.
Biden decided to respond to that accusation because it gained traction beyond right-wing media and led to a congressional investigation, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
“The autopen is, you know, is legal. As you know, other presidents used it, including Trump,” Biden said in an interview with the New York Times in July. “They’re liars. They know it,” he said of Trump’s and Republicans’ claims.
Trump last month unveiled a new portrait series at the White House featuring black-and-white photos of him and his predecessors — but put a photo of an autopen in the frame for Biden.
The White House “Presidential Walk of Fame” along the West Wing Colonnade. The image selected for former president Joe Biden is of an autopen and Biden’s signature. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
Several former presidents have found the first months and years of post-presidency challenging, especially if they left office with low approval ratings, presidential historians said. Jimmy Carter was a “pariah” in the years after he left office because the Democratic Party had to rebuild after his resounding loss to Ronald Reagan, who portrayed Carter as weak and inept, said Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and president of the LBJ Foundation.
Lyndon B. Johnson, who died four years after leaving office, dropped out of the presidential race in March 1968 and faced voter fury over the Vietnam War.
Still, Biden’s post-presidency is unprecedented in several ways. At 82, he is the oldest president to leave office and is now battling cancer, giving him limited time to shape his legacy. Carter had decades to rebuild his reputation and other presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, have made a mark through years of work with their foundations.
The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation recently approved a board for Biden’s presidential library. The library will be built in Delaware, though an exact location has not been announced.
The initial vision for Biden’s library is “a hub for leadership, service and civic engagement” and, as part of the planning, the foundation team has visited or met with representatives of every other presidential library in recent months, according to a senior member of the foundation.
Biden’s library will “encourage visitors to reflect on President Biden’s historic time in office and tremendous accomplishments,” the foundation official said. Biden’s supporters maintain that history will remember his accomplishments, including leading the country out of the covid-19 pandemic, managing the economy after the pandemic and passing major bipartisan legislation, including a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Perhaps most unusual, Updegrove said, is Trump’s public obsession and preoccupation with Biden, which he said is “anomalous in presidential history.”
“We have the oldest outgoing president who’s grappling with health issues, not able to vigorously defend himself or make his mark in other areas,” Updegrove said. “There’s nothing to mitigate the damage that’s being done.”
Trump has gone to great lengths to attack his predecessor. He has gone after former administration officials and political opponents with unusual ferocity, directing his attorney general to prosecute them. He also stripped away Secret Service protection for Biden’s adult children and attacks Biden while taking questions from the press and in major presidential addresses.
“It’s indisputable that, despite his best intentions, he jeopardized the Democrats’ chances of beating Donald Trump,” Updegrove said. “Unfortunately, while he was the one who staved off the reelection challenge from Trump in 2020, he’s also the one most responsible for Trump’s return to office, and I don’t think there’s any denying that.”
The Washington Post (archive.ph)
By Yasmeen Abutaleb
2025-10-11 19:23:50GMT
Former president Joe Biden leaves church on Sept. 6 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Mega/GC Images)
Since Donald Trump entered the White House nearly nine months ago, most Democrats have wanted Joe Biden to stay on the sidelines — and the former president has mostly obliged.
But behind the scenes, the lifelong politician is uneasily adjusting to a quieter, lower-profile life and remains bitter about being pushed to drop out of the 2024 race, according to interviews with multiple people close to the former president, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private details.
He has also been battling an aggressive form of prostate cancer after a diagnosis earlier this year and is undergoing radiation treatment and hormone therapy, said Kelly Scully, a spokeswoman for Biden.
Biden remains a voracious consumer of news and regularly debates with his small team of advisers in Wilmington, Delaware, on whether to weigh in on Trump’s latest actions and statements — especially the direct, often unsubstantiated attacks on Biden in settings including an address to the United Nations and a rare gathering of military generals.
Biden has largely opted not to respond, choosing to follow the expectation that former presidents seldom talk publicly about their successors.
Historians say Biden’s postpresidential experience is unprecedented not only because of Trump’s attacks, but also because of the degree to which Trump has tried to punish and prosecute Biden and his allies. Few presidents have left office facing such opprobrium — not only from his successor but also from many Democrats who blame him for a devastating election loss. Books that detailed how Biden’s aides tried to hide his fragility during his final year in office have added to the narrative of decline that has shadowed his life after the White House.
The former president still talks with longtime allies such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), according to multiple people familiar with the interactions. He spends much of his time working on his memoir and on the foundation dedicated to building his presidential library.
Robert Salladay, a senior adviser to Newsom, confirmed that Biden and Newsom have spoken a few times this year and “continue to have a warm relationship.” Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders did not respond to requests for comment. Biden hosted Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) at his Wilmington home on Thursday.
Although Biden has been deeply worried about the damage Trump is doing to democratic institutions, the former president and his aides recognize that adding his voice to the conversation could backfire — either fueling Trump or prompting another round of hand-wringing among Democrats about whether he should have run for reelection. When Biden made high-profile appearances early in Trump’s tenure, including on “The View,” some Democrats worried that his reemergence would prevent the party from moving forward.
“I have a lot of respect for President Biden,” said Joel Benenson, a former pollster for the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns. “But any president has to face the realities of when their time has come and gone.”
Benenson added that the decision not to hold an open Democratic primary process in 2024 “put the party through a situation where we suffered because we didn’t have primaries for the election against Donald Trump. … That was the worst mistake the Democratic Party has made in years.” Others say it’s unclear whether Democrats would have won had Biden dropped out earlier.
Those close to him say the gregarious, highly social Biden misses being at the center of the action and has sought ways to stay connected with everyday Americans — the aspect of politics he relished most through his more than 50-year career.
Biden poses for photos at Janssen's Market on Sept. 7 in Wilmington. (Mega/GC Images)
Late last month, for instance, he decided at the last minute to attend Vet Fest, a Delaware celebration honoring those who have served in the military. Biden became an unannounced guest of honor and spoke about his late son, Beau, who served in Iraq, and later bought lemonade from a child’s lemonade stand.
Biden has dropped in on a number of other small events since leaving office. In March, he attended a Model U.N. Conference with high school students in New York. He has dropped in at church services — including one in Wilmington on St. Patrick’s Day and another in Galveston, Texas, for a Juneteenth event — and delivered remarks from the pulpit during a May church service in Philadelphia. He has had a steady number of appearances for Democratic groups, including upcoming speeches in Boston and Omaha.
And he has spoken at a handful of industry conferences for paid speaking engagements. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that he has struggled to attract much interest from companies worried about retribution from Trump, as well as Biden’s advanced age and unpopularity among Democrats. Biden officials said the offers he had received were on par with past presidents.
“More than anything, after over 50 years in public service, former president Biden has continued to enjoy connecting with people in their communities — whether that’s at public events, conferences, universities, festivals, or small businesses,” Scully, the Biden spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Biden and those closest to him have bristled at how Democrats have treated the former president since he left office. Few have defended Biden against Trump’s attacks and many — especially those pondering a 2028 presidential run — have distanced themselves and criticized Biden’s decision to seek reelection.
The most stinging rebuke came from his former vice president, Kamala Harris, who ran against Trump after Biden dropped out of the race. Harris called Biden before an excerpt from her book was released last month in which she said it was “recklessness” to leave the decision to run for a second term up to Biden and first lady Jill Biden, according to two people familiar with the conversation. The exact nature of their conversation is not known.
Biden has been hurt by some of the characterizations of him and his staff in Harris’s book but opted against publicly responding, according to one of the people, and has told associates he wishes Harris well on her book tour.
As Democrats have tried to regroup after sweeping losses in last year’s elections, Biden has worried that the party is not always able to mount an effective response to Trump’s attacks on democratic institutions and his purge of the federal government, according to multiple people familiar with his thinking. He has been most concerned when law firms, universities and media companies have capitulated to Trump, whether through settlements or overhauls of their policies and standards, they said.
Although Trump attacks Biden almost daily, the former president has mostly viewed any response as a distraction from Trump’s broader actions, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Trump still falsely maintains that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
During a speech last month at the American Cornerstone Institute Founder’s Dinner, Trump attacked Biden’s intelligence.
“The very angry, mean Biden — you know, Biden was always a mean guy but never a smart guy,” Trump said. “You go back 30 years ago, 40 years ago, he was a stupid guy. … Not working too well for him right now. When you start feeling sorry for him, remember he was a bad guy.”
Biden made an exception when Trump alleged without evidence that Biden’s aides forged his signature with an autopen — a machine that uses real ink to duplicate a human signature — because Biden was not cognitively capable of signing a document himself.
Biden decided to respond to that accusation because it gained traction beyond right-wing media and led to a congressional investigation, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
“The autopen is, you know, is legal. As you know, other presidents used it, including Trump,” Biden said in an interview with the New York Times in July. “They’re liars. They know it,” he said of Trump’s and Republicans’ claims.
Trump last month unveiled a new portrait series at the White House featuring black-and-white photos of him and his predecessors — but put a photo of an autopen in the frame for Biden.
The White House “Presidential Walk of Fame” along the West Wing Colonnade. The image selected for former president Joe Biden is of an autopen and Biden’s signature. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
Several former presidents have found the first months and years of post-presidency challenging, especially if they left office with low approval ratings, presidential historians said. Jimmy Carter was a “pariah” in the years after he left office because the Democratic Party had to rebuild after his resounding loss to Ronald Reagan, who portrayed Carter as weak and inept, said Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and president of the LBJ Foundation.
Lyndon B. Johnson, who died four years after leaving office, dropped out of the presidential race in March 1968 and faced voter fury over the Vietnam War.
Still, Biden’s post-presidency is unprecedented in several ways. At 82, he is the oldest president to leave office and is now battling cancer, giving him limited time to shape his legacy. Carter had decades to rebuild his reputation and other presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, have made a mark through years of work with their foundations.
The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation recently approved a board for Biden’s presidential library. The library will be built in Delaware, though an exact location has not been announced.
The initial vision for Biden’s library is “a hub for leadership, service and civic engagement” and, as part of the planning, the foundation team has visited or met with representatives of every other presidential library in recent months, according to a senior member of the foundation.
Biden’s library will “encourage visitors to reflect on President Biden’s historic time in office and tremendous accomplishments,” the foundation official said. Biden’s supporters maintain that history will remember his accomplishments, including leading the country out of the covid-19 pandemic, managing the economy after the pandemic and passing major bipartisan legislation, including a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Perhaps most unusual, Updegrove said, is Trump’s public obsession and preoccupation with Biden, which he said is “anomalous in presidential history.”
“We have the oldest outgoing president who’s grappling with health issues, not able to vigorously defend himself or make his mark in other areas,” Updegrove said. “There’s nothing to mitigate the damage that’s being done.”
Trump has gone to great lengths to attack his predecessor. He has gone after former administration officials and political opponents with unusual ferocity, directing his attorney general to prosecute them. He also stripped away Secret Service protection for Biden’s adult children and attacks Biden while taking questions from the press and in major presidential addresses.
“It’s indisputable that, despite his best intentions, he jeopardized the Democrats’ chances of beating Donald Trump,” Updegrove said. “Unfortunately, while he was the one who staved off the reelection challenge from Trump in 2020, he’s also the one most responsible for Trump’s return to office, and I don’t think there’s any denying that.”
tho
