The Four-Year Report Card of the 82-Year-Old U.S. President
The Four-Year Report Card of the 82-Year-Old U.S. President
Joe Biden’s Time for Evaluation
As Joe Biden’s only presidential term and his administration come to an end, the time for evaluation has arrived. His legacy includes both bright and dark aspects. While Donald Trump prepares for the inauguration ceremony, which on Monday, January 20, Congress will officially mark his extraordinary return to the White House, the time for evaluation has arrived for Joe Biden and his administration.
In his farewell speech at the end of Joe Biden’s only presidential term, in which he had promised to heal the nation’s soul in 2021, he acknowledged that his promise had not been fulfilled. According to him, today’s America is in a state of constant battle, a short distance between danger and opportunity. With Trump’s return to the Oval Office next week, the Biden era and the Democrats appear to be just a temporary phase in an era where nationalism is on the rise.
Of course, in the four years of this veteran Democrat’s presidency, he can say that he defeated Trump, stood against Russia, passed laws, appointed judges, and rightly claim that he left a strong economy for the country. However, it is also true that he did not understand or address the many people’s concerns about inflation, which his stimuli contributed to, and fears related to immigration. Furthermore, contrary to what he promised in the 2020 election campaign to act as a bridge between two political generations, he not only did not grasp it in time but, worse, did not want to step aside.
His friends and supporters claim that opinions about his performance will change over time, but today, public opinion is clear and undeniable. Only a quarter of Americans believe Joe Biden was a good or great president. This is less than the percentage Trump received when leaving office shortly after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the impeachment attempt, and while the country was still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, regarding the rest of the world, opinions are not as definitive and clear. Many believe that most of his successes will now fade away and that his legacy is the return of Trump.
What is the Bidenomics Paradox?
Bidenomics is a term referring to the economic policies of former U.S. President Joe Biden. These policies focus primarily on strengthening the domestic economy, reducing economic inequalities, creating job opportunities, and supporting the middle and lower classes. Bidenomics seeks to sustain economic growth and improve economic and social conditions through investments in infrastructure, clean energy, and education.
Other features include a focus on social justice and support for workers and their rights. These policies pay special attention to combating climate change and improving living standards for various social classes. Overall, Bidenomics is a combination of tax measures, large-scale investments in infrastructure, increasing the minimum wage, and regulatory adjustments to reduce income gaps.
In domestic policy, perhaps no president has advanced more laborious legislative programs than Joe Biden, aiming to combat climate change, reduce and regulate drug costs, cancel or reduce student debt, and impose stricter regulations on gun purchases.
In terms of infrastructure, Biden also advanced a massive $1.2 trillion program for the reconstruction of roads, bridges, airports, water and sewage networks, and high-speed internet, which he managed to pass with Republican support. Additionally, his name will be linked to the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest green technology investment in U.S. history, and the Chips and Science Act, a nearly $300 billion initiative designed to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S. and increase investments in research and development. However, the development of programs and obtaining permits takes time, and many of these projects have yet to achieve the impacts they were designed for.
Joe Biden himself has complained about not being appreciated as much as he thought he deserved. On the contrary, people hold him responsible for the increase in inflation, which sharply rose due to the $19 trillion aid packages approved by the government to help families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gas, food, and housing prices have all increased by more than 20%, causing many Americans to feel they are in a bad situation. Biden inherited an economy severely damaged by COVID and leaves behind an exceptionally strong economy, as noted by the Financial Times. However, while he is set to resign on Monday, many Americans believe their situation is worse than when he took office.
A Foreign Policy with Bright and Dark Spots
Certainly, in foreign policy, Biden can be proud of some of his achievements. Under his leadership, the United States has strengthened its collaborations and alliances worldwide, from NATO to the Quad, which unites the U.S. with Japan, India, and Australia. His administration has managed relations with China responsibly, restoring competition to a systematic and predictable framework. Enemies in both Russia and Iran are weaker than they were four years ago. After the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Biden administration played a crucial role in gathering and coordinating transatlantic support for Kyiv.
But there were also failures, like the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, even though the decision was made in the final months of the Trump administration, and a massive wave of migrants at the border in 2023. Like all his predecessors, Biden failed to resolve the immigration crisis at the Mexican border. Although he promised a more humane policy following the heartbreaking scenes of families being separated at the border, he faced the reality that this phenomenon could not be controlled without bipartisan agreement and ultimately had to adopt the same strict Republican policies.
Even if Biden deserves credit for rallying Europe to defend Ukraine, critics believe he failed to grasp the exceptional nature of that moment. Biden, as Phillips Payson O’Brien wrote in The Atlantic, viewed the conflict as a crisis to be managed rather than a war to be won. Today, Ukraine’s uncertain fate is left to his successor.
A Controversial Legacy
But it is in the Middle East where the former president’s legacy becomes highly controversial, with a multitude of destructions and the highest civilian casualties among all recent conflicts. The Gaza Strip, using military tools supplied by the United States, has been literally reduced to ashes. Biden claims to have supported the Israeli government, but in the eyes of many people around the world today, he appears as a president who has trampled on the very rights, values, and laws he promised to defend. Instead, what the Gaza war has revealed to international public opinion is a deep cynicism towards the United States with regard to the liberal international principles Biden previously spoke of.
In defending Ukraine, Biden had asked other countries to recognize that only a rule-based system could save the world from chaos, and for this reason, we would all be at risk if Russia were allowed to achieve what it wants. Today, in a highly critical article, The Washington Post wrote, but when it came to Israel, his administration decided not to apply U.S. laws that condition military aid to foreign countries on their compliance and rejected the performance of key military institutions on which that system is based, including the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the United Nations. Four years ago, Biden announced the return of the United States and leadership that allies could rely on. Today, his words among global leaders, who are under populist pressure and must deal with Trump’s return, seem hollow.
In the end, it can be acknowledged that only time will allow us to fully assess the merits and limitations, successes and failures of Biden’s presidency. Historians have often reassessed presidencies that ended with unpleasant conclusions or electoral defeats, such as those of Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, or George H.W. Bush in recent times. The effects of some of Biden’s significant achievements, including the Infrastructure Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, will only be measurable in the years to come.
Nevertheless, Biden’s political end is tragic and accompanied by real failures and humiliations, domestically with his futile insistence on candidacy and his last-minute replacement, and internationally with instances repeatedly imposed on him by Netanyahu. At least for now, the image that the end of his presidency gives us is that of a tired, stubborn, and not always astute man who failed to step aside when necessary while failing to capitalize on his undeniable political and legislative successes achieved between 2021 and 2023.