"Settling Scores": Biden Reveals Trump's Hidden Face in Fiery Memoirs

Former US President Joe Biden directed sharp criticism at his successor Donald Trump, accusing him of attempting to cling to power after losing the 2020 elections, and stressing that what he did on January 6, 2021, must not be forgotten.

Biden said: "What Trump did on January 6, 2021, should never be forgotten, and it should haunt him until his grave."

Biden's statements came in his new memoirs titled (Promise Me, America), scheduled for sale on November 17 of this month. He criticized Trump's decision to issue broad pardons and reduce sentences for those accused in the January 6 Capitol breach events, on his first day back in the White House. He also criticized the lack of an official ceremony to honor police officers who defended the Capitol building during the attack.

The Atlantic magazine published early excerpts from the memoirs on Monday, in which Biden also revealed details of what happened inside the Oval Office during his meeting with Trump in November 2024, when the latter was president-elect, describing the friendly tone Trump adopted as bordering on flattery.

Oval Office Meeting
Biden said he was surprised by the warmth of Trump's reception, just eight days after the presidential election that saw Democrats defeated against Republicans.

Biden wrote: "Trump started talking immediately, and I was surprised by taking a tone so friendly that I thought he might be mocking me," adding that Trump told him: "You know, Joe, if it weren't for politics, I think we would have become good friends."

Biden noted that he was "too stunned to respond," while Trump continued speaking "as if delighted by the strange course of dialogue he had chosen."

According to Biden's account, Trump also said: "Yes, if it weren't for politics, we would spend all our time playing golf together."

The former president added that Trump described his record on job creation as "exceptional," and seemed, according to Biden, "relieved that he didn't have to run against me in an election."

Biden said he ended the barrage of compliments to move to the issues at hand, presenting Trump with a comprehensive overview of files that could shape his presidency, but noticed that the president-elect was more interested in the personalities of world leaders.

He wrote: "It was as if we were exchanging rumors about people at a dinner party, rather than discussing issues of global importance."

Criticism of Trump's Performance in Second Term
In the memoirs, Biden said that Trump's "lies" continued since his return to power, starting with "the completely discredited claim that he defeated me in the 2020 elections."

He added that these lies escalated with what he described as Trump's attempt to dismantle American traditions and institutions, pointing to the removal of the East Wing of the White House, despite his pledge not to do so.

The Electoral College had certified Biden's victory in the December 2020 elections.

Biden acknowledged that presidents' policies are subject to change due to political considerations, and their successors can reverse them, but he said this feeling was doubled because of what he described as Trump's destructive nature and disregard.

He added that Trump "seemed unable to accept the idea that another person's achievements might deserve building upon instead of demolishing."

Biden criticized Trump's decision to withdraw again from the Paris Climate Agreement, open public lands to oil exploration, end support for electric vehicles, and cancel wind and solar energy projects, considering that these decisions make the United States less able to compete with China.

Biden said Trump announced these policies during a rally, while executives from oil and gas companies sipped champagne and ate "Pop-Tarts" bearing his image, in a luxury five-star hotel across from the White House.

Biden also criticized the Department of Government Efficiency, known by the acronym "DOGE," and Trump's decision to cut federal funding to states led by Democrats without providing an explanation, alongside reducing the work of non-profit organizations and withdrawing from the World Health Organization.

He added: "It was clear that the government would be harsher," adding that it would also be "a government that fuels racial tensions instead of calming them."

He continued that the new administration would launch a campaign to end birthright citizenship guarantees stipulated in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which he described as a prominent legacy of the American Civil War.

He confirmed that elements of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement would roam American cities, using expanded powers to gather people of Latin and Black descent and detain them away from courts and local police.

Biden considered that the United States would become a less tolerant society, amid conspiracy theories he said would receive active promotion from the White House, and through Trump's increasing posts on social media, which he described as becoming more disturbed.

Presidential Immunity and the Supreme Court
Biden touched upon the US Supreme Court ruling issued in 2024, which granted presidents some immunity from prosecution for acts falling within their official duties.

Biden commented on the ruling: "There was no precedent for this judgment, common sense did not support it, and it had no constitutional basis. It was inexplicable, indefensible, and sounded the death knell for accountability."