Biden’s Brush With Royalty Caps a Glamorous Week for ‘Scranton Joe’

WASHINGTON — President Biden met Prince William of Wales, the future king of Britain, for a gaze over the Boston harbor on Friday, capping an unusually glamorous week for a president who takes pride in the humble moniker of “Scranton Joe.”

“What a spectacular setting,” William told Mr. Biden as he arrived at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, where some locals bristled at the royals’ three day tour.

The prince and his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales, were in town to celebrate the Earthshot Prize, the award they created to encourage work addressing climate change.

Mr. Biden’s brief encounter with the monarchy came a day after he rubbed shoulders with President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife, Brigitte, over caviar and lobster at the first state dinner of the Biden administration.

But Mr. Biden, who was called “Cher Joe” by Mr. Macron on Thursday, much prefers to emphasize his working-class reputation. The son of a car salesman from Scranton, Pa., Mr. Biden kicked off his first presidential bid from the back of an Amtrak train and has long been a strong backer of labor unions.

Earlier on Friday, when he signed legislation to impose a labor agreement between rail companies and workers to avert a nationwide rail strike, Mr. Biden said the move was “tough for me.”

“But it was the right thing to do at the moment,” he added, “to save jobs.”

Mr. Biden attended the funeral of William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September, paying homage to a British monarch he had compared to his own mother.

After chatting with the prince, Mr. Biden made sure to nod to the blue-collar workers of the Bay State. He visited the University of Massachusetts Boston for a phone bank organized by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to support Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, a Democrat who is facing a runoff election against the Republican Herschel Walker.

“I’m tired of trickle-down economics,” Mr. Biden said, singling out the Massachusetts senators, Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, both Democrats, as supporters of the middle class.