Former President Joe Biden took aim at President Donald Trump’s White House renovations in a rare new interview. He called the demolition of the East Wing to make way for a ballroom “disturbing” and “beneath the country.”
Biden, 83, made the remarks in an exclusive on-camera interview with People magazine at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. The interview comes ahead of the Nov. 17 release of his presidential memoir, “Promise Me, America.”
Asked about the ballroom project and the East Wing’s destruction, Biden compared it to the gold accents Trump has added to the Oval Office and other parts of the White House, calling both disturbing.
He said he saw Trump’s decision to tear down the East Wing as an attempt to build “monuments to himself.”
Trump has called the ballroom a legacy project and has said presidents have wanted one for 150 years.
Biden also used the interview to defend his own record, including some of the most criticized moments of his presidency.
He said he would have ended his reelection bid if he had known he had cancer while in office. He said he did not believe an 80-year-old man with cancer should run for president, but he insisted that was not the situation at the time and that he was objectively the best-equipped person for the job.
Biden also played down his 2024 debate performance against Trump, calling it “not very consequential.” That performance triggered widespread concern about his health and was followed weeks later by his exit from the race.
The former president also broke with his son Hunter over the pardon he granted him. Hunter Biden has said the pardon was bad for the country and for his father’s legacy. The elder Biden said he issued pardons to shield family members and others close to him from what he described as retribution by Trump.
Biden is living with stage 4 prostate cancer. He has completed radiation and is undergoing hormone therapy, and he has said his illness will limit how many appearances he makes to promote the book.
Excerpts of the memoir are already drawing attention. In a passage published Monday by The Atlantic, Biden wrote that what Trump did on Jan. 6, 2021 should follow him to his grave. In the same excerpt, he recounted a cordial Oval Office meeting with Trump shortly after the 2020 election, in which Biden says Trump told him they might have been friends if not for politics.
The book also includes a gracious letter Trump left for Biden on White House stationery during the transition in 2021. Biden described the letter as generous but said it was inconsistent with the kind of president Trump had been.
According to publisher Hachette Book Group, the memoir covers Biden’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine and his decision to withdraw from the 2024 race.
[READ MORE: Kennedy Family Asks Court to Block Trump’s 250-Foot Arch Near Arlington National Cemetery]
