President Biden on Monday spoke for the last time from the State Department on the state of American foreign policy and national security following his four-year term set to conclude in one week when President-elect Donald Trump will once again take up the top job. 

Biden did not specifically address or name the inbound president, but he referenced the prior, and incoming, Trump administration and touted that he is leaving a “strong hand to play.”

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the State Department in Washington, U.S. January 13, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

The president listed off a number of major nations of top geopolitical importance to U.S. national security, but he also referenced the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan – which has been among the president’s most heavily criticized policy decisions and which resulted in the death of 13 American service members and roughly 140 Afghan civilians ISIS-K launched an attack on those evacuating at Abbey Gate.

“[I am] the first president in decades who’s not leaving a war in Afghanistan to his successor,” Biden said.

The president pointed to the 2011 assassination of 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden, during the Obama administration and said he assessed that large numbers of American forces were no longer needed when he took up office.  

“So when I took office, I had a choice – only I saw no reason to keep thousands of servicemen in Afghanistan,” he added. “In my view, it was time to end the war and bring our troops home, and we did.”

This is a developing story.