Biden calls UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’ tax cut plan a ‘mistake’

“I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a mistake. I don’t agree with the politics, but that’s on the UK.”

President Biden on Saturday called embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss a let down tax cut plan a “mistake,” and said he was concerned that other nations’ fiscal policies could hurt the US amid “global inflation.”

Mr Biden said it was “predictable” that the incoming prime minister was forced to roll back plans on Friday massive tax cuts without identifying cost savings after Truss’ proposal caused turmoil in global financial markets. It was an unusual criticism by a US president of the domestic policy decisions of one of his closest allies.

“I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a mistake,” Mr. Biden said. “I don’t agree with the politics, but that’s on Britain.”

Mr. Biden’s comments came after weeks of White House officials refusing to criticize Truss’ plans, despite stressing they would be monitoring the economic fallout closely. He was talk to reporters at an ice cream parlor in Oregon, where he made an unannounced stop to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek as Democrats across the country face a difficult political environment amid GOP criticism of their handling of the economy.

Mr Biden said he was not concerned about the dollar’s strength – it set a new record against the British pound in recent weeks – which is benefiting US imports but making the country’s exports more expensive to the rest of the world.

The President said the US economy is “fucking strong”.

“I worry about the rest of the world,” he added. “The problem is the lack of economic growth and sensible policies in other countries.”

Mr Biden said: “It’s global inflation, that’s a consequence.”