Biden claims European leaders want him back in action

The former US president has said he is “giving advice” but steering clear of direct involvement

Former US President Joe Biden has claimed that foreign leaders have been urging him to reengage in global affairs, despite his retirement from public office.

Speaking at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) conference in San Diego on Wednesday, Biden, 82, said “I’m getting calls – I’m not going to go into them, I can’t – from a number of European leaders asking me to get engaged.”

The ex-president said that he declined to do so “because things are different.” At the same time, Biden acknowledged that while he is “not actively involved with NATO issues,” he is still “giving advice.” 

Biden also said he remains in touch with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. “I’ve been dealing with a lot of Democrat and Republican colleagues calling me… wanting to talk and bounce things off of me,” he said, adding that he remains involved in political discussions “because I really cared about what I was doing.”

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Biden went on to voice frustration over the rollback of several of his administration’s policies under President Donald Trump, although he avoided mentioning his successor by name. “Many of the things I worked so damn hard [on] that I thought I changed in the country are changing so rapidly,” he said.

The Democrat noted that he was focused on completing a memoir about his four years in the White House, adding that he is “working like hell with a publisher to write another 500-page book.” 

Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in the face of widespread criticism over recurring public gaffes and his disastrous debate performance against Trump, which raised concerns in his own party about his age and mental acuity. He formally withdrew from the contest in July 2024, endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, who lost the November vote to Trump.

In May 2025, Biden revealed that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. He continues to appear in public and has struck an optimistic tone when speaking about his chances of beating the disease.