Biden’s presidency saw major domestic accomplishments, such as economic growth and infrastructure reform, but was overshadowed by foreign policy challenges, like Afghanistan’s withdrawal and Middle Eastern conflicts.
“I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you,” President Joe Biden declared while addressing a roaring crowd during the opening night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Biden’s speech, originally planned for the convention’s final day before his sudden withdrawal from his campaign and endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, was, as CNN’s Van Jones described, “an old lion’s last roar.” As Biden ends his presidency, passing the Democratic torch to Harris, his fifty-year career of public service will finally conclude. As a United States Senator, Vice President, and President, his time in office was certainly filled with many mistakes, missteps, and failures but will ultimately end in a remarkably effective presidential term at a time of profound political polarization and razor-thin congressional margins.
Biden’s legislative accomplishments stimulated economic growth following the COVID-19 pandemic, invested over a trillion dollars into crumbling American infrastructure, and recommitted the U.S. to combating climate change. Biden’s tenure has been far from perfect, challenged by historic levels of U.S. inflation, a chaotic southern border, hypocritical foreign policy rhetoric, and an inflamed Middle East. As Joseph Robinette Biden’s term comes to an end, this article asks: have four years of the Biden administration been successful?
The Biden Administration inherited a nation in disarray following the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and two years of the COVID-19 pandemic that had killed 400,000 Americans by the time he assumed office in January 2021. One of the first legislative successes of Biden’s presidency was stabilizing the American economy and getting the pandemic under control through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The nearly $2 trillion package addressed vaccine distribution and allocated billions in emergency funding for small businesses, childcare, and personal protective equipment. It also provided Americans with a third round of direct stimulus in the form of $1,400 checks, the most generous direct financial assistance for civilians in the world. The effects of most legislation are often not immediately felt, and the pandemic’s human and economic costs continued to increase throughout Biden’s first year in office. However, there is little doubt that the American Rescue Plan had an immensely stabilizing effect and will be viewed as Biden’s first of many successful legislative accomplishments.
Following the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the Biden administration accomplished what successive presidents had failed to do: improve America’s collapsing infrastructure. Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allocated $1.2 trillion of investment in America’s roads, bridges, broadband networks, airports, and waterways. Over 40,000 projects have begun since the law’s signing, creating over 300,000 jobs. These projects will likely take years to complete, but the initial impact of this legislation was monumental for addressing crumbling infrastructure and will surely be felt for generations to come.
Additional legislative successes include the CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law in late 2022. Aimed at strengthening U.S. supply chains and enhancing domestic production of semiconductors, the law authorized $280 billion in spending to support research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the U.S., a vital industry that had been increasingly dominated by China. It also saw significant investments in higher-level STEM education programs for training non-college technical workers. The law’s implementation has faced challenges, such as a shortage of highly skilled workers and bureaucratic delays, yet the bipartisan bill was a crucial step in leveling the technological gap between the U.S. and China at a time when computing technology and artificial intelligence have become booming industries.
To address the continued lack of funding for veteran healthcare, President Biden signed the PACT Act in 2022. The law increased funding for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and expanded healthcare and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. Two years later, over a million claims through the PACT Act have been made, with nearly a million more U.S. veterans across all 50 states receiving benefits—a resounding success in taking care of the nation’s veteran population.
In a historic first, Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing retired Justice Stephen Breyer. The first former public defender to serve on the court, Justice Jackson will continue to provide a diverse perspective to a system dominated by prosecutors. Additionally, the Senate approved a combined 205 district and circuit court judges nominated by President Biden, the most in the first four years total of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, and equal to Donald Trump.
On immigration, the Biden administration has struggled to articulate how it will reform America’s outdated system. Biden reversed Trump’s family separation policy, but his administration’s border policies went nowhere in a gridlocked Congress, providing critics an opportunity to blame the president for surges of immigration. Border patrols encountered over 2.2 million migrants crossing illegally in 2022, an all-time high. Unable to deter significant migrant flows, Biden turned toward executive action and ordered a crackdown on asylum claims. The administration also directed border control to shut down the border if illegal crossings surpass 2,500 individuals. Ultimately, Biden’s actions have not made U.S. immigration more humane, orderly, or secure and will most likely lead to drastically longer processing periods for immigrants.
One of Biden’s greatest challenges has been navigating through four-decade highs of the U.S. inflation rate. Wages struggled to keep up with the dramatic cost increases, which peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, with cumulative inflation closer to 20% throughout Biden’s four years. Widespread supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and unprecedented federal spending to revive the economy gave indications of an economic recession, reflected in the President’s approval ratings, which dropped below 40%, also in June 2022.
One of the misplaced critiques of the Biden administration’s economic policies has been the dramatic increase in gas prices under his term, peaking at $5.07 per gallon in the summer of 2022. While the President has little market control over gas prices, prices have steadily gone down, and domestic oil production and exportation have surged. Today, the U.S. is producing more crude oil than any other nation on earth and ever in human history while exporting more fossil fuel than ever, accounting for over 80% of globally produced fossil fuels.
Fortunately for Biden and American consumers, inflation has started to fall, consumer confidence has risen, and faith in the trajectory of the U.S. economy has slowly been restored. The U.S. economy has experienced solid growth over the past four years and has regained all pandemic GDP losses while surpassing every other G7 nation in terms of economic recovery measured by GDP. Wages have continued to regain ground on inflation, and the stock market has also seen consistent growth with all-time highs for the S&P 500.
Job creation under the Biden presidency has been another success. The U.S. created over 15 million jobs while Biden was in office, 11 times more than the last three Republican administrations combined. While unemployment claims reached highs of 15% in 2020, today claims have steadily decreased. Biden also became the first sitting President to join a union strike when he walked the picket line with members of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) at a General Motors parts center outside Detroit in 2023. One month later, the UAW secured a significant wage increase and benefits package with America’s Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.
One of the stark differences between the Trump and Biden administrations is their approach to climate change and the risks a warming planet poses to humanity. While the Biden administration’s climate policy has been far from perfect, it has taken steps to reduce emissions and re-engage with allies on reducing the future effects of rising global temperatures. The Biden Administration reversed the Trump decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement on his first day in the Oval Office, recommitting the U.S. to cutting carbon emissions, regulating the use of fossil fuels, and transitioning the U.S. to a more renewable economy. The Biden administration also canceled the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project, a victory for Native American tribes and environmentalists.
Another legislative success came in the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), one of the largest investments in the American economy and the first comprehensive climate legislation in U.S. history. Costing approximately $800 billion over the next decade, the IRA provided the largest investment in America’s economy and infrastructure since the New Deal. The law created more than 20 tax incentives for clean energy, manufacturing, and reducing greenhouse emissions to better transition the economy for future climate-related threats. Additionally, the law allowed for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for ten of the most commonly used medications, a massive achievement for reducing American healthcare costs. Not a single congressional Republican voted for its passage, with many pointing to the law’s large price tag while downplaying the threat of rising global emissions, despite evidence that increasing carbon emissions will have long-term economic consequences. The IRA is not only a vital step in ensuring future generations a cleaner planet and reducing the consequences of climate change’s destructive effects, but it will also chip away at high medication prices while supporting the future of the Affordable Care Act.
Another stark change between the Trump and Biden administrations has been the re-engagement with allies on key foreign policy challenges. While Trump pursued a more unilateral foreign policy, often transactional, Biden has re-committed the U.S. to the NATO alliance, expanded new partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, and stood up to global autocrats like Vladimir Putin.
In the first year of the Biden presidency, U.S. foreign policy was consumed by the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Biden has successfully avoided a direct confrontation between American forces and Russians while providing Ukrainians with vital support in dismantling the Russian army. The United States has given $175 billion in military assistance to support the Ukrainian government and a slew of weapons to defend against Russian advances. Biden helped unite a transatlantic and trans-Pacific coalition to sanction Russia and support Ukraine, which, despite early military stalemates and ongoing congressional challenges, has been his greatest foreign policy success. Today, Ukraine has restored some partial battlefield mobility through unbelievable willpower and Western support, even making incursions into Russian territory. This war will carry on to the next administration; however, the Biden administration has done a remarkable job of standing up for Ukrainian sovereignty and providing the necessary tools for the Ukrainian army.
One of the Biden Administration’s earliest missteps was the predictably chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in September 2021. The end of America’s longest war was, on its face, a success, but the manner in which U.S. forces exited the country weakened American credibility with allies on the ground in Afghanistan and cost 13 U.S. service members their lives. A month after the U.S. withdrawal, the Afghan government and national security forces were overrun by the Taliban, who have increased their crackdown on women’s rights and extrajudicial killings.
In Asia and the Indo-Pacific, Biden has made improvements to diplomatic relations with once-adversarial nations like Vietnam while expanding existing partnerships with the Philippines and upgrading relations with Indonesia. While his grand strategic shift in pursuit of U.S. objectives in the Indo-Pacific to counter growing Chinese influence was an early policy priority, this momentum has stalled, a costly misstep.
The most recent challenge for the Biden administration has been balancing financial and military support for Israeli military operations in Gaza with voters demanding accountability for crimes committed against Gazan civilians with U.S. weapons. In the wake of Hamas’ barbaric October 7 attack, the U.S. immediately granted $14.3 billion of assistance as part of a sweeping $106 billion aid package, including replenishing U.S. weapons to Ukraine and providing humanitarian aid to both Israel and the Gaza Strip. Biden initially warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the risks of running into Gaza with no war objectives or long-term strategy, similar to the American reaction to the September 11 attacks that committed thousands of U.S. troops and trillions of dollars to the Middle East. There was widespread hope that Biden could leverage support for Netanyahu to quickly negotiate the freeing of hostages while mitigating the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians. Over the past 11 months, that hope has completely evaporated.
While American allies and the international community have called for investigations into Israeli and IDF war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the killing of journalists and medical professionals, the Biden administration has refused to cooperate. While the administration has supported similar investigations into Russian perpetrators of the same crimes against Ukrainians, regarding Israel, Biden has refused to do the same. Biden announced the construction of a pier in Gaza to assist in delivering humanitarian aid, which was only necessary due to an Israeli siege on aid entering the strip. The pier cost over $230 million and was a disaster from the beginning, breaking numerous times before the U.S. abandoned the project altogether.
In March, as Israeli forces approached Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, one of the last refuges for displaced Palestinians, the President vaguely offered a red line: if IDF operations continued to target refugee encampments in Rafah, some form of U.S. military assistance would be suspended. Intense IDF airstrikes followed, killing hundreds of Palestinians with no policy change from the Biden administration, which has since continued to send more weapons to Israel.
Since the war in Gaza began, the U.S. has supplied Israel with more than 10,000 massive 2,000-pound bombs, dozens of F-15 warplanes, and thousands of Hellfire missiles, allowing the IDF to kill Palestinians at a shocking rate. U.S. military assets, including the GBU-39 bomb dropped on a United Nations school in June that killed 32 people, including seven children, have abetted an expanding Middle East conflict at a time when the administration should be better positioning itself for future conflicts in Asia and the South China Sea. While the administration has continued to claim the conflict has not expanded outside Israel and Gaza, this is simply not true, with upticks in violence in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Furthermore, U.S. forces stationed across the Middle East have increasingly become targets for Iranian-backed proxies who see the U.S. as Israel’s chief military sponsor. The Biden administration’s military, financial, and diplomatic support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has damaged America’s global reputation and accelerated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians living in Gaza — a colossal failure.
Biden’s greatest foreign policy missteps and challenges have come in the final year of his administration. He has abandoned the rhetoric on human rights accountability in favor of longtime American allies, foregoing calls to hold Saudi Arabian officials responsible for the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and ignoring Palestinian suffering at the hands of the Israeli military and government. Biden’s messaging has also become less effective and truthful regarding America’s role in ongoing international conflicts as his presidency has continued. This June, while addressing the nation, Biden claimed that “the United States is not at war anywhere in the world.” While the U.S. has not officially started any wars under the Biden administration, the U.S. military has been active across the world, launching strikes targeting Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia.
As Joe Biden prepares to leave office, his administration will have grown the American economy, given assurances to American allies on certain key issues, and recommitted the U.S. to combating climate change. Despite domestic successes, his administration has struggled to leverage an end to the war in Gaza, address an outdated immigration system, and articulate its policy victories to the masses.
U.S. Presidents have two constituencies: the people and history. While Biden’s administration has been plagued by historically low domestic approval ratings, he has also been one of the most effective presidents in modern history. Biden will be remembered for historic investments in the future of America, reviving America’s economy after COVID, and unwavering support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia. However, his administration will also be frustrated that it did not achieve more or provide its successor with a more navigable geopolitical future. Still, despite widespread political polarization and a historically unproductive Congress, Biden has been successful in laying a foundation for future American progress and prosperity.
Biden’s presidency saw major domestic accomplishments, such as economic growth and infrastructure reform, but was overshadowed by foreign policy challenges, like Afghanistan’s withdrawal and Middle Eastern conflicts.
“I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you,” President Joe Biden declared while addressing a roaring crowd during the opening night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Biden’s speech, originally planned for the convention’s final day before his sudden withdrawal from his campaign and endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, was, as CNN’s Van Jones described, “an old lion’s last roar.” As Biden ends his presidency, passing the Democratic torch to Harris, his fifty-year career of public service will finally conclude. As a United States Senator, Vice President, and President, his time in office was certainly filled with many mistakes, missteps, and failures but will ultimately end in a remarkably effective presidential term at a time of profound political polarization and razor-thin congressional margins.
Biden’s legislative accomplishments stimulated economic growth following the COVID-19 pandemic, invested over a trillion dollars into crumbling American infrastructure, and recommitted the U.S. to combating climate change. Biden’s tenure has been far from perfect, challenged by historic levels of U.S. inflation, a chaotic southern border, hypocritical foreign policy rhetoric, and an inflamed Middle East. As Joseph Robinette Biden’s term comes to an end, this article asks: have four years of the Biden administration been successful?
The Biden Administration inherited a nation in disarray following the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and two years of the COVID-19 pandemic that had killed 400,000 Americans by the time he assumed office in January 2021. One of the first legislative successes of Biden’s presidency was stabilizing the American economy and getting the pandemic under control through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The nearly $2 trillion package addressed vaccine distribution and allocated billions in emergency funding for small businesses, childcare, and personal protective equipment. It also provided Americans with a third round of direct stimulus in the form of $1,400 checks, the most generous direct financial assistance for civilians in the world. The effects of most legislation are often not immediately felt, and the pandemic’s human and economic costs continued to increase throughout Biden’s first year in office. However, there is little doubt that the American Rescue Plan had an immensely stabilizing effect and will be viewed as Biden’s first of many successful legislative accomplishments.
Following the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the Biden administration accomplished what successive presidents had failed to do: improve America’s collapsing infrastructure. Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allocated $1.2 trillion of investment in America’s roads, bridges, broadband networks, airports, and waterways. Over 40,000 projects have begun since the law’s signing, creating over 300,000 jobs. These projects will likely take years to complete, but the initial impact of this legislation was monumental for addressing crumbling infrastructure and will surely be felt for generations to come.
Additional legislative successes include the CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law in late 2022. Aimed at strengthening U.S. supply chains and enhancing domestic production of semiconductors, the law authorized $280 billion in spending to support research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the U.S., a vital industry that had been increasingly dominated by China. It also saw significant investments in higher-level STEM education programs for training non-college technical workers. The law’s implementation has faced challenges, such as a shortage of highly skilled workers and bureaucratic delays, yet the bipartisan bill was a crucial step in leveling the technological gap between the U.S. and China at a time when computing technology and artificial intelligence have become booming industries.
To address the continued lack of funding for veteran healthcare, President Biden signed the PACT Act in 2022. The law increased funding for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and expanded healthcare and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. Two years later, over a million claims through the PACT Act have been made, with nearly a million more U.S. veterans across all 50 states receiving benefits—a resounding success in taking care of the nation’s veteran population.
In a historic first, Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing retired Justice Stephen Breyer. The first former public defender to serve on the court, Justice Jackson will continue to provide a diverse perspective to a system dominated by prosecutors. Additionally, the Senate approved a combined 205 district and circuit court judges nominated by President Biden, the most in the first four years total of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, and equal to Donald Trump.
On immigration, the Biden administration has struggled to articulate how it will reform America’s outdated system. Biden reversed Trump’s family separation policy, but his administration’s border policies went nowhere in a gridlocked Congress, providing critics an opportunity to blame the president for surges of immigration. Border patrols encountered over 2.2 million migrants crossing illegally in 2022, an all-time high. Unable to deter significant migrant flows, Biden turned toward executive action and ordered a crackdown on asylum claims. The administration also directed border control to shut down the border if illegal crossings surpass 2,500 individuals. Ultimately, Biden’s actions have not made U.S. immigration more humane, orderly, or secure and will most likely lead to drastically longer processing periods for immigrants.
One of Biden’s greatest challenges has been navigating through four-decade highs of the U.S. inflation rate. Wages struggled to keep up with the dramatic cost increases, which peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, with cumulative inflation closer to 20% throughout Biden’s four years. Widespread supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and unprecedented federal spending to revive the economy gave indications of an economic recession, reflected in the President’s approval ratings, which dropped below 40%, also in June 2022.
One of the misplaced critiques of the Biden administration’s economic policies has been the dramatic increase in gas prices under his term, peaking at $5.07 per gallon in the summer of 2022. While the President has little market control over gas prices, prices have steadily gone down, and domestic oil production and exportation have surged. Today, the U.S. is producing more crude oil than any other nation on earth and ever in human history while exporting more fossil fuel than ever, accounting for over 80% of globally produced fossil fuels.
Fortunately for Biden and American consumers, inflation has started to fall, consumer confidence has risen, and faith in the trajectory of the U.S. economy has slowly been restored. The U.S. economy has experienced solid growth over the past four years and has regained all pandemic GDP losses while surpassing every other G7 nation in terms of economic recovery measured by GDP. Wages have continued to regain ground on inflation, and the stock market has also seen consistent growth with all-time highs for the S&P 500.
Job creation under the Biden presidency has been another success. The U.S. created over 15 million jobs while Biden was in office, 11 times more than the last three Republican administrations combined. While unemployment claims reached highs of 15% in 2020, today claims have steadily decreased. Biden also became the first sitting President to join a union strike when he walked the picket line with members of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) at a General Motors parts center outside Detroit in 2023. One month later, the UAW secured a significant wage increase and benefits package with America’s Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.
One of the stark differences between the Trump and Biden administrations is their approach to climate change and the risks a warming planet poses to humanity. While the Biden administration’s climate policy has been far from perfect, it has taken steps to reduce emissions and re-engage with allies on reducing the future effects of rising global temperatures. The Biden Administration reversed the Trump decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement on his first day in the Oval Office, recommitting the U.S. to cutting carbon emissions, regulating the use of fossil fuels, and transitioning the U.S. to a more renewable economy. The Biden administration also canceled the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project, a victory for Native American tribes and environmentalists.
Another legislative success came in the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), one of the largest investments in the American economy and the first comprehensive climate legislation in U.S. history. Costing approximately $800 billion over the next decade, the IRA provided the largest investment in America’s economy and infrastructure since the New Deal. The law created more than 20 tax incentives for clean energy, manufacturing, and reducing greenhouse emissions to better transition the economy for future climate-related threats. Additionally, the law allowed for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for ten of the most commonly used medications, a massive achievement for reducing American healthcare costs. Not a single congressional Republican voted for its passage, with many pointing to the law’s large price tag while downplaying the threat of rising global emissions, despite evidence that increasing carbon emissions will have long-term economic consequences. The IRA is not only a vital step in ensuring future generations a cleaner planet and reducing the consequences of climate change’s destructive effects, but it will also chip away at high medication prices while supporting the future of the Affordable Care Act.
Another stark change between the Trump and Biden administrations has been the re-engagement with allies on key foreign policy challenges. While Trump pursued a more unilateral foreign policy, often transactional, Biden has re-committed the U.S. to the NATO alliance, expanded new partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, and stood up to global autocrats like Vladimir Putin.
In the first year of the Biden presidency, U.S. foreign policy was consumed by the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Biden has successfully avoided a direct confrontation between American forces and Russians while providing Ukrainians with vital support in dismantling the Russian army. The United States has given $175 billion in military assistance to support the Ukrainian government and a slew of weapons to defend against Russian advances. Biden helped unite a transatlantic and trans-Pacific coalition to sanction Russia and support Ukraine, which, despite early military stalemates and ongoing congressional challenges, has been his greatest foreign policy success. Today, Ukraine has restored some partial battlefield mobility through unbelievable willpower and Western support, even making incursions into Russian territory. This war will carry on to the next administration; however, the Biden administration has done a remarkable job of standing up for Ukrainian sovereignty and providing the necessary tools for the Ukrainian army.
One of the Biden Administration’s earliest missteps was the predictably chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in September 2021. The end of America’s longest war was, on its face, a success, but the manner in which U.S. forces exited the country weakened American credibility with allies on the ground in Afghanistan and cost 13 U.S. service members their lives. A month after the U.S. withdrawal, the Afghan government and national security forces were overrun by the Taliban, who have increased their crackdown on women’s rights and extrajudicial killings.
In Asia and the Indo-Pacific, Biden has made improvements to diplomatic relations with once-adversarial nations like Vietnam while expanding existing partnerships with the Philippines and upgrading relations with Indonesia. While his grand strategic shift in pursuit of U.S. objectives in the Indo-Pacific to counter growing Chinese influence was an early policy priority, this momentum has stalled, a costly misstep.
The most recent challenge for the Biden administration has been balancing financial and military support for Israeli military operations in Gaza with voters demanding accountability for crimes committed against Gazan civilians with U.S. weapons. In the wake of Hamas’ barbaric October 7 attack, the U.S. immediately granted $14.3 billion of assistance as part of a sweeping $106 billion aid package, including replenishing U.S. weapons to Ukraine and providing humanitarian aid to both Israel and the Gaza Strip. Biden initially warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the risks of running into Gaza with no war objectives or long-term strategy, similar to the American reaction to the September 11 attacks that committed thousands of U.S. troops and trillions of dollars to the Middle East. There was widespread hope that Biden could leverage support for Netanyahu to quickly negotiate the freeing of hostages while mitigating the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians. Over the past 11 months, that hope has completely evaporated.
While American allies and the international community have called for investigations into Israeli and IDF war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the killing of journalists and medical professionals, the Biden administration has refused to cooperate. While the administration has supported similar investigations into Russian perpetrators of the same crimes against Ukrainians, regarding Israel, Biden has refused to do the same. Biden announced the construction of a pier in Gaza to assist in delivering humanitarian aid, which was only necessary due to an Israeli siege on aid entering the strip. The pier cost over $230 million and was a disaster from the beginning, breaking numerous times before the U.S. abandoned the project altogether.
In March, as Israeli forces approached Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, one of the last refuges for displaced Palestinians, the President vaguely offered a red line: if IDF operations continued to target refugee encampments in Rafah, some form of U.S. military assistance would be suspended. Intense IDF airstrikes followed, killing hundreds of Palestinians with no policy change from the Biden administration, which has since continued to send more weapons to Israel.
Since the war in Gaza began, the U.S. has supplied Israel with more than 10,000 massive 2,000-pound bombs, dozens of F-15 warplanes, and thousands of Hellfire missiles, allowing the IDF to kill Palestinians at a shocking rate. U.S. military assets, including the GBU-39 bomb dropped on a United Nations school in June that killed 32 people, including seven children, have abetted an expanding Middle East conflict at a time when the administration should be better positioning itself for future conflicts in Asia and the South China Sea. While the administration has continued to claim the conflict has not expanded outside Israel and Gaza, this is simply not true, with upticks in violence in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Furthermore, U.S. forces stationed across the Middle East have increasingly become targets for Iranian-backed proxies who see the U.S. as Israel’s chief military sponsor. The Biden administration’s military, financial, and diplomatic support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has damaged America’s global reputation and accelerated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians living in Gaza — a colossal failure.
Biden’s greatest foreign policy missteps and challenges have come in the final year of his administration. He has abandoned the rhetoric on human rights accountability in favor of longtime American allies, foregoing calls to hold Saudi Arabian officials responsible for the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and ignoring Palestinian suffering at the hands of the Israeli military and government. Biden’s messaging has also become less effective and truthful regarding America’s role in ongoing international conflicts as his presidency has continued. This June, while addressing the nation, Biden claimed that “the United States is not at war anywhere in the world.” While the U.S. has not officially started any wars under the Biden administration, the U.S. military has been active across the world, launching strikes targeting Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia.
As Joe Biden prepares to leave office, his administration will have grown the American economy, given assurances to American allies on certain key issues, and recommitted the U.S. to combating climate change. Despite domestic successes, his administration has struggled to leverage an end to the war in Gaza, address an outdated immigration system, and articulate its policy victories to the masses.
U.S. Presidents have two constituencies: the people and history. While Biden’s administration has been plagued by historically low domestic approval ratings, he has also been one of the most effective presidents in modern history. Biden will be remembered for historic investments in the future of America, reviving America’s economy after COVID, and unwavering support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia. However, his administration will also be frustrated that it did not achieve more or provide its successor with a more navigable geopolitical future. Still, despite widespread political polarization and a historically unproductive Congress, Biden has been successful in laying a foundation for future American progress and prosperity.
Marcus Mildenberger is a recent graduate of American University’s School of International Service, where he received an MA in International Affairs specializing in U.S. foreign policy and national security.
