Former Vice President Joe Biden will travel to London next week for a series of events, including a foreign policy speech that will offer up a contrast to President Donald Trump on the world stage.
The trip comes as Biden himself weighs a presidential run against Trump in 2020, a decision he says will come after the midterm elections.
A source close to Biden told CNN the former vice president will arrive in London Monday ahead of a private fundraiser for the McCain Institute Tuesday. Much of his schedule is still taking shape, but he is expected to participate in events tied to the Biden Cancer Initiative’s outreach to medical researchers as well as the Biden Foundation’s work with military families. He’s also likely to meet with some British leaders while in London, the source said.
But perhaps his most closely watched appearance will come at Chatham House Wednesday afternoon when he will speak at an event titled “A Vision for the Future of the Transatlantic Relationship.”
Since leaving office, the former vice president has not shied away from challenging Trump’s foreign policy, including the administration’s approach to the transatlantic relationship.
“They have a very different view of our relationship with Europe, and although there’s a lot of changes we have to make in that world order to accommodate the changes that have taken place in the last 70 years, we believe very strongly at the Biden Institute that it’s not to throw out, throw out the liberal world order,” Biden said at an event with former UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg at the University of Pennsylvania last month.
“The worst thing in the world we can have is this new naked nationalism America first. I believe making America first, in the way we’re doing it, will make America last,” he added. “I think it causes us to lose a great deal of influence around the world.”
Biden, who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and maintained a heavy foreign policy portfolio as vice president, frequently talks of his sustained contact with world leaders and the concern they’ve expressed about Trump.
“On the global stage, there’s fear, confusion and doubt,” Biden said at a rally for Democrats in Rhode Island on Sunday. “They are friend and foe and uncertain alike are wondering what’s happened. They see an American acting more like one of Putin’s poodles than the leader of the free world.”
Former Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who is now a managing director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and a CNN contributor, is among those planning to travel with the former vice president to London, a source close to Biden said.
Biden has also been keeping an eye on domestic politics. Since Labor Day, Biden has held a handful of public events with Democratic candidates, including an appearance Thursday afternoon with six Democratic congressional candidates in Fullerton, California. A source close to Biden says the former vice president “will be quite active” campaigning for Democrats in the final month before the midterms.