A long, bitter farewell: Biden says goodbye to the White House

“Many think he was from a bygone era. But in reality, he saw well into the future.” U.S. President Joe Biden delivered a eulogy for his predecessor of 45 years ago, Jimmy Carter, during the solemn state funeral for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate last week. Biden may well have been referring to himself: a leader whose single term, like his predecessor’s, has been defined by a hostage crisis and inflation, but who may ultimately be remembered by history as an honest leader who made bold decisions.

This is how Biden would like to be remembered after a 52-year career of public service. “I hope that history says that I came in and I had a plan how to restore the economy and reestablish America’s leadership in the world,” he shared in a TV interview. “And I hope it records that I did it with honesty and integrity, that I said what was on my mind.”

Over the past week, Biden has made numerous public appearances to vindicate his legacy, aiming to ensure his presidency isn’t remembered as just a brief interlude between the two terms of Donald Trump, his dynamic predecessor, successor, and nemesis. On Monday, he delivered a foreign policy address in which he defended his efforts to strengthen international alliances as a means of expanding U.S. influence. On Wednesday, during his farewell address to the nation, he warned that the new era could usher in an “oligarchy” in the United States. And on Thursday, he recorded his final televised interview.

In recent days, his administration has approved a flurry of measures to reinforce his program of achievements and, as much as possible, prevent his successor from dismantling them. Biden sent a final batch of military aid to Ukraine, imposed new sanctions on Russia and Venezuela, removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, commuted thousands of sentences, and extended protections against deportation for immigrants. Last month, he pardoned his son, Hunter, who had been accused of tax evasion and illegal gun acquisition, despite having publicly promised during the campaign that he would not do so.

Despite these efforts and his final push to secure his legacy, Biden exits a White House that has already been crowded with Trump supporters, who are in town for his inauguration. His unpopularity far surpasses that of his immediate predecessors. Only about a quarter of U.S. voters view him as a good president, according to a poll by AP and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. By contrast, a third of voters viewed Trump positively even in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill assault. When Barack Obama left office in 2016, half of the country had a good opinion of his administration.

The picture was very different four years ago when Biden won the election by a margin of around 74 million votes, presenting himself as the voice of reason and competence in the face of the chaos unleashed by Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and widespread street protests against racism and inequality.

His first two years in office were particularly active: he managed the administration of coronavirus vaccines, pushed through ambitious infrastructure legislation and clean energy investments, and stabilized relations with allies and China, the U.S.’s great rival. He also broke records in job creation.

The U.S.’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan was the first major blow to his popularity. Two other major foreign policy crises — his great specialty throughout his political career — would end up defining his term: Russia’s prolonged invasion of Ukraine, which still has no end in sight, and the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. The latter alienated the progressive wing of the Democratic Party due to his excessive support for Israel, and earned him the criticism of Republicans, who argued he was not doing enough to support the country.

Also contributing to growing voter unease on the domestic front were rampant inflation, partly driven by the pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine, as well as an escalation in irregular immigration, which Republicans, once again led by Trump, quickly seized upon. Biden’s physical decline, which became increasingly evident, further fueled his unpopularity.

History will likely remember the debate last June between the two rival candidates as a turning point — catastrophic for Biden, where it became painfully clear how much he was aging at 81. Pale and hesitant, he seemed to struggle, going blank at times and stringing together incoherent sentences, all under the watchful gaze of a Trump who almost appeared to sympathize. Amid growing Democratic pressure, Biden announced he was stepping aside a month later, stepping aside for his vice president, Kamala Harris. However, Harris could not avoid defeat in the November 5 elections.

There will always be the question of what might have happened if, as some within his party had hoped, Biden ruled out running for a second term from the outset, allowing the Democrats to nominate a candidate through a primary process. Many within the party now see this as Biden’s biggest mistake — the decision that ultimately opened the door to Trump’s political comeback.

In contrast, the outgoing president remains frustrated by what he believes was an ambush orchestrated by his own party. In his most recent interviews, he has reiterated his conviction that he “could have beaten Trump.”

Since the clear Democratic defeat, Biden’s influence has steadily diminished during the three-month transition period mandated by U.S. law before the start of the next legislature. In part, this is simply a law of political life: a president’s political capital all but evaporates once the title “outgoing” is attached to his name.

At times, international events overshadowed Biden’s agenda. His trip to Africa, his only visit to the continent during his tenure, was overshadowed in December by the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. What was meant to be his final presidential trip abroad, to Italy for meetings with Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was canceled due to the massive fires in Los Angeles.

In contrast, Trump has consistently been at the center of attention. Since his victory was confirmed, he has acted as if he were already in office. He proposed appointments, dispatched envoys — his representative for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, worked alongside White House representative Brett McGurk to help finalize the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza — and announced measures for his first days in office, always in his signature grandiloquent style: a major deportation of illegal immigrants, tax cuts, and pardons for those involved in the January 6 Capitol assault.

Although Biden has focused much of his final months on protecting his presidential legacy, it remains uncertain how much of it will survive under his rival’s administration. Trump has expressed frustration on social media, accusing Biden of doing “everything possible to make the transition as difficult as possible” by approving so many last-minute government measures.

“Fear not, these orders will all be terminated shortly,” the Republican promised. Senior Biden administration officials acknowledge that, should Trump choose to, they have no way to prevent this. As of Monday at noon, when he takes the oath of office on the steps of the Capitol, Trump will be the new president of the United States — and will have the power to reverse those decisions.

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