On a frigid day beneath the iconic dome of the US Capitol, Joe Biden walked purposefully towards a waiting marine helicopter, exchanging final words with his successor Donald Trump. Later, at Joint Base Andrews, the 46th president offered emotional farewell remarks to his loyal staff, declaring firmly: "We're leaving office, but we're not leaving the fight."
The Fading Presence of a Former President
One year later, however, Washington's political landscape and the wider world have largely moved on from the Biden presidency. At 83 years old, the former leader has been quietly occupied with writing a lucrative memoir, planning his presidential library, and battling prostate cancer. Once considered the most powerful individual on the planet, Biden's public appearances have become increasingly scarce, and his political influence has noticeably diminished.
Chris Whipple, author of The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House, observed: "He's been the invisible man. He's been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris."
Breaking Presidential Traditions
Traditionally, former American presidents have maintained low public profiles out of respect for the office, allowing their successors time and space to establish their own administrations. Donald Trump, characteristically, has broken with this convention, continuing to lambast Biden regularly while falsely maintaining that the 2020 election was stolen during his political exile.
Biden, who initially surprised many with the ambitious scale of his legislative agenda during his presidency's first two years, saw his approval ratings decline significantly as his term approached its conclusion. A particularly disastrous debate performance against Trump amplified concerns about his age and ultimately forced him to abandon his re-election campaign.
Contrasting Legacies and Approaches
Whereas Biden had framed the January 6th Capitol attack as a dark moment for American democracy, Trump used his first day back in office to issue sweeping pardons to more than 1,500 rioters, appoint election deniers to senior positions, and employ state mechanisms to reframe the assault as an episode of patriotic protest.
While Biden signed into law the most substantial climate spending bill in American history, Trump has launched an unrestrained assault on clean-energy initiatives while championing fossil fuels as essential for cheaper energy and the burgeoning artificial intelligence sector.
Diverging Governance Philosophies
Trump has fundamentally rejected Biden's faith in professional expertise, dismissing thousands of career officials, imposing strict loyalty tests, and systematically hollowing out government agencies previously insulated from political interference. The current president has elevated figures like Robert F Kennedy Jr and other fringe voices to influential positions within healthcare policy.
The administration has purged diversity, equity, and inclusion frameworks from government while mounting a broad offensive against universities and public bodies blamed for promoting what Trump calls the Biden-era "woke" agenda. This approach accompanies an aggressive hardening of immigration policy affecting both legal and illegal pathways.
Global Stage Contrasts
On the international front, Trump is sketching a new world order based primarily on power, strength, and national self-interest, straining relationships with traditional allies through threats of land seizures, tariffs, and economic coercion. This represents a dramatic departure from Biden's commitment to postwar structures like NATO and his steadfast support for Ukraine against Russian aggression.
Political Activity Comparisons
In the face of this political onslaught, it is Barack Obama, at 64, who has remained more visibly politically active, participating in dozens of public engagements including campaign rallies during last November's elections.
Biden's own forays into public life have been comparatively rare. In May, his post-presidential office announced he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. In July, he spoke at the Society for Human Resource Management's convention in San Diego, California, revealing he was receiving calls "from a number of European leaders asking me to get engaged."
Biden also disclosed he was "working like hell" to complete a 500-page memoir reportedly sold for $10 million to Little, Brown & Co, an imprint within Hachette. However, NBC News reported that Biden was struggling to raise funds for his presidential library from donors experiencing political fatigue and disappointment.
Democratic Party Sentiments
In October, Biden addressed an audience in Boston after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Edward M Kennedy Institute. "Friends, I can't sugar-coat any of this. These are dark days," Biden acknowledged before predicting the country would "find our true compass again" and "emerge as we always have – stronger, wiser and more resilient, more just, so long as we keep the faith."
Yet many Democrats have shown limited appetite for such interventions. Numerous party members still blame Biden for stubbornly clinging to the 2024 presidential nomination until it was too late, giving Kamala Harris only 107 days to forge her own campaign. His failure to prevent Trump's return to the Oval Office is widely viewed as an indelible stain on his political legacy.
Political Analyst Perspectives
Frank Luntz, a respected political consultant and pollster, commented: "He left office on a low and even Democrats feel like they were misled, so it's gonna take a while for his reputation to return. He had a good one for the first couple of years but that's not what people remember of his presidency. They remember how he went out, not how he came in."
Now largely regarded as yesterday's news, Biden appears to be fading more rapidly from the collective consciousness than most former presidents. Ironically, those keeping his memory most actively alive are Trump and his Republican allies. The 79-year-old incumbent consistently references his predecessor in speeches and press conferences, often employing derogatory nicknames like "Crooked Joe" and "Sleepy Joe."
Symbolic Gestures and Investigations
Trump installed a "presidential walk of fame" along the White House's west colonnade featuring portraits of past presidents, replacing Biden's official portrait with an autopen image to mock his age and legitimacy. An accompanying plaque labels him "by far, the worst President in American History."
Luntz added: "It feels like the election isn't over. It feels like it's being rerun. It's Groundhog Day. The election's being run again and again and again."
The White House has opened an investigation into the Biden administration's use of the presidential autopen, which Trump has called "one of the biggest scandals in the history of our country." Republican representatives in the House have launched investigations asserting that Biden's closest advisers concealed a physical and mental decline during his presidency, while the Senate has initiated hearings focused on his mental fitness.
Limited Political Impact
Nevertheless, political commentators remain sceptical that, more than a year into Trump's presidency, efforts to direct public anger toward the 46th president will gain significant traction.
Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington, noted: "Based on survey evidence, Trump's effort to blame Biden for the current state of the economy is falling flat with the American people. By a margin of better than two to one, they say it's Trump's economy, not Biden's, so from that standpoint rattling on about Biden on the most important issue facing the country is manifestly not helping him."
As Biden continues his relatively quiet post-presidential life focused on personal projects and health challenges, he remains an ever-present figure in Trump's political rhetoric—a paradoxical situation where a president striving for invisibility finds himself constantly invoked by his successor as the source of America's contemporary difficulties.
