Biden: ‘I’d be very fortunate’ to run against Trump in 2024

President Biden on Thursday said he would be “fortunate” to have a rematch against former President Trump in the 2024 election as he reflected on the shift in America’s standing on the world stage since taking office.

At a press conference at NATO headquarters, Biden was asked about the prospect of his foreign policy efforts to align America with its allies and the coordinated response among NATO allies being undone by another president after the 2024 election, including Trump, who has signaled he may run for reelection after losing in 2020.

“One of the things I take some solace from, is I don’t think you’ll find any European leader who thinks that I am not up to the job,” Biden said. “And I mean that sincerely. … The point is, the first G-7 meeting I attended like the one I did today was in Great Britain. And I sat down and I said, ‘America is back.’ And one of my counterparts, colleagues, head of state, said, ‘For how long?'”

“I don’t criticize anybody for asking that question,” Biden continued. “But the next election, I’d be very fortunate if I had that same man running against me.”

Biden recounted his decision to run for president in 2020, inspired by white nationalist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.

“When I ran this time, and I think the American press, whether they look at me favorably or unfavorably, I made a determination. No election is worth my not doing exactly what I think is the right thing. Not a joke. I’m too long in the tooth to fool with this any longer,” Biden said.

Biden added that his only focus on elections at this point is working to ensure Democrats maintain majorities in the House and Senate “so that I have the room to continue to do the things I’ve been able to do in terms of growing the economy and dealing in a rational way with American foreign policy and lead the world.”

Biden was in Brussels for meetings with NATO allies and members of the European Council and Group of Seven (G-7) focused on the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration has for weeks touted its coordination with allies in rolling out sanctions and providing aid to Ukraine, arguing the lock-step approach has added to the impact on Russia’s economy.

The approach is in contrast to Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, which often alienated allies. The former president routinely criticized NATO and G-7 partners. Trump was also impeached at the end of 2019 after he leveraged military aid for Ukraine in exchange for investigations into Biden and his family’s business dealings in Ukraine.

Democrats have pointed to Trump’s policies and rhetoric in response to Republican criticism that Biden has been too slow to provide assistance to Ukraine, though the White House itself has avoided referencing the previous administration directly.