'Lame duck' Biden heads to UN as Trump's possible return further clouds world affairs

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden heads to the final United Nations General Assembly of his term of office this week, eager to assuage nervous world leaders amid a tight U.S. presidential race and multiple global conflicts as questions loom about Washington’s future role.

The outgoing commander in chief has spoken publicly about unnamed leaders privately questioning America’s role in global affairs should Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, retake office in January. While Trump has campaigned on a less-involved America, Biden’s approach to the annual New York summit will be rooted in his “belief that, like politics, foreign policy is also personal,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said last week.

“Throughout all his engagements up there in New York, he will reaffirm America’s leadership on the world stage,” Kirby told reporters on Sept. 19. “He’ll rally global action to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate; the opioid epidemic; mobilizing resources for developing countries; managing the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence; and helping end the brutal wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan, among many other critically important issues.”

Trump and Republican lawmakers have pointed to those wars to contend Biden’s foreign policy approach has been flawed, with the former president at rallies and in interviews painting Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the current Democratic presidential nominee, as incompetent and creating an environment for a potential third world war of nuclear proportions.

As they enter their final months in office, team Biden has leaned into legacy mode, talking more about what they believed has been accomplished since January 2021. Part of that message has been Biden mending fences around the world that Trump, as president, damaged. That is expected to be Biden’s theme on Tuesday morning, when he is slated to deliver his last General Assembly address as president.

Kirby said Biden will lay out “his vision for how the world should come together to solve these big problems and defend fundamental principles, such as the U.N. Charter.”

But as Biden speaks, the possibility of the “America first” Trump doing so next year will hang over the address.

“The more I talk to people around the world the more I get a sense of profound anxiety about the shape of the U.S. election. I think the perception that President Trump is unpredictable has the effect of freezing adversaries who are uncertain of [his] actions, but it also freezes allies who have become uncertain of U.S. support,” Jonathan Alterman, a former State Department policy adviser, said last week at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event.

“What that does is it prompts allies to hedge against abandonment and to de-emphasize collective action,” added Alterman, now a CSIS senior vice president. “And these meetings coming up, for many people around the world, are really an inflection point for how they will think about their security concepts in the future. … There is this moment of watching and waiting.”

‘Not in Israel’s interests’

As other leaders keep an eye on the U.S. campaign, Biden will be back at a gathering of world leaders, including some who have questioned Israel’s handling of its war against Hamas — and now Hezbollah in Lebanon. Biden aides and some top Democratic lawmakers in recent days have pushed back on any notion that Israel striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon amounts to an escalation of tensions in the volatile region.

Kirby on Friday dismissed reporters’ questions about whether Biden is concerned about the military and intelligence operations — including detonating Hezbollah-issued pagers and walkie talkies — Israel has conducted in Lebanon. He even contended to reporters that “war is not inevitable” despite video footage and images on television and social media showed heavy damage and civilian casualties.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., on Monday echoed that.

“We expect Israel will defend itself, but escalation of the conflict is not in Israel’s interest, not in the United States’ interest,” the retiring Cardin told CNN.

“We want to see a deescalation of the conflict, and we want to see the countries of the region come together and isolate Iran so that the Israelis and Palestinians can live with security in the region, respecting each other’s rights. That’s our objective. That’s what we’re going to work on,” he added. “And that message will be … delivered here at the United Nations by this senator and [this] president.”

Biden on Monday told reporters that “my team has been in constant contact with their counterparts, and we’re working to deescalate in a way that allows people to return to their home safely,” adding that he had been briefed on the situation in Lebanon.

Cardin, who is one of five officials Biden named as an official U.S. representative at the General Assembly meeting, said he expects Biden will, in part, use his Tuesday address to “challenge the United Nations that when we come together, we can solve world problems. He’ll point out how we came together in regards to the COVID pandemic. Now we need to come together in regards to isolating the terrorist organizations and their enablers.”

Alterman noted when Biden arrives at U.N. headquarters “he will be there as a lame duck.”

“I don’t expect either President Trump or Vice President Harris to show — and there’s a way in which the U.N. becomes almost prematurely like a sideshow,” he added. “It’s not the main event, because the people who are going to decide the future of the way the U.S. engages in the world don’t think being at the U.N., engaging with the U.N., will help them — and it certainly won’t help them get elected by the American public.”

Expect Trump to use Biden’s final General Assembly address as he campaigns this week in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan — all swing states where polls put him and Harris in extremely close races.

“We’re being laughed at all over the world. All over the world, they’re laughing. I know the leaders very well. They’re coming to see me. They call me,” Trump said during his Sept. 10 debate with Harris. “We’re not a leader. We don’t have any idea what’s going on. We have wars going on in the Middle East. We have wars going on with Russia and Ukraine. We’re going to end up in a third world war, and it will be a war like no other because of nuclear weapons, the power of weaponry.”