Biden's memoir calls Zelensky moody and stubborn, describes Putin as sulking like a teenager

In brief

• Biden's memoir, Promise Me, America, is due out on November 17.
• Biden says Zelensky's acting experience helped him lead during war but that he could be moody, stubborn and less grateful than expected in private.
• Biden describes Putin as irritable and sulking like a teenager, and says he refused Trump's team a blank check to negotiate with Putin.

Biden's description of Zelensky

Biden says Volodymyr Zelensky's acting background proved useful preparation for leading a country at war. In private conversations, however, the Ukrainian president could be moody and stubborn, and he showed less gratitude than Biden had anticipated (Путин вел себя как «подросток», Зеленский — был «недостаточно благодарным», а Трамп — двуличным. WSJ приводит выдержки из мемуаров Байдена – Novaya Gazeta Europe) («Неблагодарный» Зеленский и «два Трампа». Что написал Джо Байден в своих новых мемуарах — WSJ опубликовала отрывки из книги – NV) (Байден у мемуарах розкритикував Зеленського та розповів, що думав про Путіна – Espreso).

Putin and the Kremlin

Biden portrays Vladimir Putin as irritable in tone. He writes that Putin liked to slouch during meetings and feign indifference, behaving like a teenager.

Trump's team and Ukraine

Biden recounts that people around Donald Trump asked him to sign off on letting them negotiate directly with Putin before Trump took office. Biden refused, saying he did not want to give them a blank check for what he expected would amount to a kind of capitulation at Ukraine's expense.

Two Trumps

Biden calls Trump's role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol assault one of the most egregious abuses of presidential duty in history. He was nonetheless struck by a gracious letter Trump left for him in the Oval Office. "It seemed as if there were two Donald Trumps," Biden writes. After the 2024 election, Trump told him that without politics they might have been friends and played golf together.

Context

The excerpts were published by The Wall Street Journal ahead of the book's release. Biden's account of Putin, Zelensky and Trump's team comes from his own recollections and has not been independently verified.