History Should Not Look Kindly on President Biden

Ryan Heshmati

January 17, 2025

With Biden’s presidency coming to a close, a moment of reflection is in order. Four years ago, President Biden sold Americans on the promise of a transition presidency. A transition away from the drama and uncertainty of Donald Trump and a transition away from an old generation of politicians. With a presidency built upon the promises of making room for the new, in many ways, the Biden administration was, for lack of a better word, a failure. 

For starters, the global sphere has been consumed with anything but peace and tranquility over the last couple of years. With the rise of global conflicts,  Biden did not bring Americans security through successful foreign policy. In one defense of the Biden presidency’s foreign policy blunders, it is worth noting that the botched Afghanistan withdrawal came from President Trump’s intention to end US troops’ presence in the country. 

The “transition candidate” commitment Biden made when running in 2020 either turned out to be deceit, or he simply changed his mind. Either way, he did not follow through. President Biden’s unwillingness to drop out of the race, despite the public’s serious doubts about his age, handicapped Democrats in the 2024 race, which led to his failure to deliver on another pillar of the 2020 Biden platform: closing the chapter on Donald Trump. In contrast, Trump has experienced one of the greatest, if not the greatest, political comebacks in American history. 

Perhaps, at best, history will remember President Biden like the late Jimmy Carter: a well-intentioned, kind man who just could not deliver when it counted. It may seem harsh to characterize the Biden presidency so negatively to some. After all, markets appreciated significantly over his term, and unemployment was low, but even on economic indicators, Biden had presided over some serious challenges. The nation has been forced to grapple with persistent inflation, which, while down, has not been erased. Additionally, the higher interest rates imposed by the Federal Reserve to combat inflation have increased borrowing costs for American families. Now, it is unreasonable to blame Biden entirely for these economic woes, but it is fair to point out that he failed to curb significant government deficit spending, which could have affected inflation troubles.

In 2020, President Biden sold Americans on a vote for him as a representation of a vote to move forward. Unfortunately, on November 5th, Americans decided they liked life better four years before. That is a major embarrassment for both Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. The rise of global conflicts, along with inflationary pressures that arose on Biden’s watch, only served to exacerbate his list of blunders. Ultimately, President Biden is a public servant who worked to better the lives of Americans for over half a century, but his presidency was flawed. Though the final verdict won’t be in for several decades, undoubtedly, historians will look back on President Biden’s term with quite a bit of criticism.