Biden served his
single term as the 46th President of the United States, winning the
2020 presidential election against
Republican incumbent president
Donald Trump. He was
inaugurated on January 20, 2021. However, Trump refused to accept his loss and
attempted to overturn the election results. While in office, Biden signed the
American Rescue Plan Act,
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,
CHIPS and Science Act, and
Inflation Reduction Act in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic and
subsequent recession. He
appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the
Supreme Court of the United States. In
his foreign policy, the U.S. reentered the
Paris Agreement. Biden oversaw the
complete withdrawal of U.S. troops that ended the
war in Afghanistan, leading to
the Taliban seizing control. He
responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing
sanctions on Russia and authorizing
aid to Ukraine. During the
Gaza war, Biden condemned the actions of
Hamas as terrorism, strongly supported
Israel's military efforts, and sent limited humanitarian aid to the
Gaza Strip. A temporary
ceasefire proposal he backed was adopted shortly before he left office. Democrats controlled both houses of Congress until Republicans won a slim majority in the
House of Representatives in the
2022 elections. Republicans took control of the
Senate after the
2024 elections.
Concerns about Biden's age and health persisted throughout his term. He became the first president to turn 80 while in office. He began his presidency with majority support, but saw his approval ratings decline significantly throughout his presidency, in part due to public frustration over
inflation, which peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 but dropped to 2.9% by the end of his presidency. Biden initially
ran for re-election and, after the
Democratic primaries, he became the party's presumptive nominee in the
2024 presidential election. After his poor performance in the
first presidential debate, renewed scrutiny from across the political spectrum about his cognitive ability led him to ultimately
withdraw from the race. Biden
immediately endorsed Vice President
Kamala Harris to replace him in his place as
the party's presidential nominee. Harris subsequently became the Democratic presidential nominee at the
2024 Democratic National Convention with
Tim Walz as
her running mate, but they subsequently lost the general election to Trump and
JD Vance. Biden's administration is
ranked favorably by historians and scholars, diverging from
public assessments of his tenure. He is the
oldest living former U.S. president, the
oldest living former U.S. vice president, and the oldest person to have served as president. After Trump's victory, Biden and Trump met and commenced the
presidential transition. During the period of Trump's being
president-elect, he planned on having billionaires like
Vivek Ramaswamy (before Ramaswamy's withdrawal) and
Elon Musk in
his second presidential administration. Once Trump was
inaugurated on January 20, 2025, the Democratic Party would lose control of the presidency in addition to falling short of a majority in the House and Senate. The party also had a minority of state legislature seats and governorships. ==Address==