Biden slates Truss tax plan during ice cream shop visit

Joe Biden bites into an ice cream after giving his take on Liz Truss' economic policy

US president Joe Biden called Liz Truss’ abandoned tax cut plan a “mistake" as he visited an ice cream shop in Portland.

The criticism was unusual - US presidents are not known to slate the domestic policy decisions of one of their closest allies.

“I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake,” Mr Biden said to reporters at an Oregon ice cream shop. He had made an unannounced stop there to promote the candidacy of Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Tina Kotek.

“I disagree with the policy, but that’s up to Great Britain.”

It was “predictable” that Ms Truss was forced to walk back plans to aggressively cut taxes on Friday, Mr Biden added.

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For weeks, Liz Truss' proposals have caused turmoil in global financial markets and, according to reports, have now put her at risk of an imminent coup.

Mr Biden’s take on the chaos came after weeks of White House officials declining to criticise Ms Truss’ plans, though they emphasised they were monitoring the economic fallout closely.

At the ice cream shop, the president said he is worried that other nations’ fiscal policies may hurt the US amid “worldwide inflation."

Mr Biden said he was not concerned about the strength of the dollar - it set a new record against the pound in recent weeks - which benefits US imports but makes the country’s exports more expensive to the rest of the world. The president said the US economy “is strong as hell”.

“I’m concerned about the rest of the world,” he added. “The problem is the lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries.”