President Joe Biden took office amid one of the most sweeping public health crises in the nation’s history, promising to “restore the soul” of the country and bring unity. As his term comes to an end, his presidency has been met with a mix of praise and criticism, leaving behind a divided legacy.
In his inaugural address in 2021, Biden described the moment as a “winter of peril and possibility.” Four years later, in his farewell speech to the nation on Jan. 15, he expressed pride in his administration’s achievements.
“I’ve kept my commitment to be president for all Americans through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history,” Biden said, reflecting on the successes and challenges of his tenure.
Some regarded the president a hero, arriving just in time to navigate the country through the COVID-19 pandemic, mandate vaccines, fix supply chains, spur economic growth, and defend democracy.
Yet, as Emel Akan writes for The Epoch Times, for others, his presidency became a source of frustration due to concerns about government overspending, soaring inflation, escalating wars, and a deepening border crisis.
One of the defining issues of Biden’s presidency was inflation, which hit a 40-year high during his term. Rising grocery and energy costs strained the daily lives of many Americans, especially those in the lower and middle classes, whom Biden had pledged to support.
Though Biden and his administration argued that inflation was a global phenomenon caused by the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, rising costs played a significant role in fueling negative perceptions of his economic agenda, known as “Bidenomics.”
A grocery store in Columbia, Md., on Oct. 24, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
The 82-year-old president leaves office believing he has achieved significant wins for the country. But his approval ratings remained persistently low throughout much of his term.
According to a recent CNN poll, 36 percent of U.S. adults at the end of his presidency approve of how Biden managed the country. It was also the lowest rating of his term.
He received especially low approval ratings on his handling of immigration, foreign affairs, and the economy. However, his approval was relatively higher in other areas, such as protecting democracy, and handling environmental and health care policies.
A recent Gallup survey also found that 54 percent of U.S. adults believe Biden will be remembered as a “poor” or “below average” president.
Some Democrats, however, say Biden was not fully appreciated during his time in office, arguing that history will eventually give him more credit than the current polls suggest.
According to Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), it’s important to remember the context in which Biden took office.
“If you look back to four years ago, we faced mass unemployment, and in January 2021, we were right in the middle of the worst and deadliest month of the COVID pandemic. The economy was on its knees,” Boyle told The Epoch Times.
“He leaves office four years later with the strongest economy in the world,” he said. “On foreign affairs, he rebuilt our NATO alliance. We were able to stand up to Russian aggression in Ukraine. So overall, while there are still things that we need to improve, America is much stronger and economically more prosperous today than when he entered office four years ago.”
Many will view Biden’s presidency as a period of significant legislative achievements, particularly in areas such as infrastructure and manufacturing. As part of his “Investing in America” agenda, the president directed nearly $221 billion in federal funds during his term—through loans, grants, tax credits, and other incentives—into boosting domestic manufacturing. According to the White House, these incentives unlocked more than $1 trillion in private-sector investment across industries such as semiconductors, solar energy, batteries, critical minerals, and nuclear energy.
Workers install solar panels on a rooftop at the Port of Los Angeles, in Los Angeles on April 21, 2023. Mario Tama/Getty Images
Biden said he created jobs every single month during his presidency, claiming to have achieved the lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in the last 50 years.
“We changed the basic formula of how to make an economy work,” Biden said in his final sit-down interview with MSNBC on Jan. 17, highlighting how his administration had empowered labor unions.
“He’s been a good president. He’s delivered on a lot,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) told The Epoch Times.
The outgoing president repeatedly said many of his legislative achievements are focused on the long term, arguing that their positive effects will become more evident over time.
In a recent interview with USA Today, Biden also expressed regret for not taking enough credit for these accomplishments, admitting that he could have done more to communicate what he had delivered for the American people.
Biden was reluctant to engage with the media during his time in office. A July study found that he held fewer press conferences and gave fewer media interviews than any president since Ronald Reagan.
The Age Factor
As the oldest president in U.S. history, Biden faced frequent questions about his age and mental fitness. Many believed he was not fit to run for a second term. After a poor debate performance in June, he faced mounting pressure and eventually announced that he was stepping aside as the party’s presidential nominee, and passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden recently said he believed he could have won the 2024 presidential election if he had stayed in the race. However, he told USA Today that he wasn’t sure he had the energy to serve another four years in office.
“Who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?” he said.
Democrat strategist Theryn Bond defines Biden’s time in office in two words—"consequential and controversial.”
“There were a number of things over the course of his entire political career that many may have viewed as problematic, while others may have viewed as wildly successful,” she told The Epoch Times.
Bond believes that Biden came to office like a “superhero” because people were unhappy with President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 response and other policy decisions four years ago and assumed Biden would “save the day.”
Bond also pointed out that he will be judged not just for his presidency but for the actions he’s taken throughout his entire political career.
Some will praise him for the programs and initiatives he introduced that benefited them directly, she said, such as student loan forgiveness.
“People also know him as ‘Crime Bill Joe,’ a legacy that left a sour taste in many folks’ mouths for decades,” she added, referring to the 1994 Crime Bill and its controversial impact, particularly on communities of color.
In the final weeks of his presidency, Biden faced backlash for pardoning his son, Hunter, who was facing sentencing in two criminal cases, despite previously ruling out such action. His decision drew sharp criticism, even from within his party, with many accusing him of setting an unusual precedent for future presidents.
Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Beau Jr., in Nantucket, Mass., on Nov. 29, 2024. Craig Hudson/Reuters
Foreign Policy Legacy
Throughout his presidency, Biden said he worked to strengthen alliances and partnerships, particularly to counter Russia and China. He took pride in bolstering NATO by welcoming new members, Sweden and Finland, into the alliance.
The outgoing commander-in-chief emphasized that, despite challenges, he kept America out of war.
However, his foreign policy faced significant scrutiny, especially because of the chaotic withdrawal of the U.S. military from Afghanistan in 2021. The fall of Kabul to the Taliban after the U.S. pullout, along with the tragic killing of 13 U.S. troops in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, led to widespread criticism of the administration’s handling of the crisis. The images of desperate Afghans clinging to planes to escape the country shocked the world, and many U.S. allies questioned America’s leadership on the world stage.
During his foreign policy speech at the State Department on Jan. 13, Biden took credit for the Afghanistan withdrawal, stating that he ended the nation’s longest war after 20 years of fighting.
However, the incident marked a turning point in his presidency, leading to the first significant decline in his approval ratings.
Passengers board a U.S. Air Force C-17 at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 24, 2021. Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen/U.S. Air Forces Europe-Africa via Getty Images
Biden largely continued the trade war with communist China initiated by Trump during his first term. However, Biden’s approach furthered efforts focused on strengthening alliances in the Indo-Pacific region to address climate change and technology, while also working to limit China’s access to critical American technologies.
Biden also called Chinese communist party leader Xi Jinping a dictator and declared that the United States would not hesitate to use military force if China attempted to invade Taiwan.
‘Tech-Industrial Complex’
During his farewell address from the Oval Office on Jan. 15, Biden said “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence.”
He also echoed President Dwight Eisenhower’s famous 1961 farewell address that warned of the dangers of the “military-industrial complex.”
“Six decades later, I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country,” Biden said.
Many believed that Biden’s comments were aimed at billionaire Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the latter of whom recently reformed Meta’s fact-checking program to be more like the X-style community notes, calling third-party fact checkers “too politically biased.”
In a recent interview with Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials in the Biden administration pushed to censor vaccine-related content.
“We did generally defer to the government on some of these policies that in retrospect I probably wouldn’t, knowing what I know now,” Zuckerberg said.
Christopher Hale, a political commentator and former Obama White House and campaign alum, said Biden’s farewell address wasn’t crafted to win the immediate moment.
“It was designed to shape the broader, enduring argument,” Hale told The Epoch Times.
“If his diagnosis of a tech-industrial oligarchy as the defining threat of our era proves correct, this could become the pivotal moment of his presidency. However, it will take a generation to fully judge its significance.”
Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington on Jan. 31, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
What Is Next?
Biden is visiting Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday, just one day before leaving office—a state where his journey to the White House began more than four years ago. South Carolina holds particular significance for Biden, as he won the state’s primary in 2020 thanks to strong support from its black voters. This victory was a pivotal moment that helped his campaign regain momentum and eventually secure the party’s presidential nomination after struggling in earlier primaries.
The end of Biden’s presidency also marks the conclusion of his political career, which has spanned five decades and included roles as a senator from Delaware and as vice president under President Barack Obama.
On Jan. 20, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will attend Trump’s inauguration. Following the swearing-in ceremony, the Bidens will reportedly travel to central California for some personal time.
The outgoing president indicated on Jan. 10 that he will continue to work on domestic policy matters after leaving office.
When asked about his plans, Biden told reporters jokingly, “I’m not going to be out of sight or out of mind.”
