Next week, US President Joe Biden will hand over the office of president of the United States to Donald Trump. In his final address to the nation, he warned that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy.” Commentators take stock of his four years in office.
Dictators had little to fear
The US president was too hesitant in international affairs, says The Times (UK):
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
“Mr Biden was squeamish about taking on dictatorships. He failed to force a nuclear deal on Iran which in its growing isolation following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria is inching closer to an atom bomb. ... His administration did nothing also to rein in North Korea’s expanding nuclear arsenal. And his criticism of Saudi Arabia for the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was short-lived. ... If the Israeli hostages held by Hamas are released in the next few days Mr Biden will try to claim credit. His foreign policy epitaph has already been written, however: on his watch dictators had a little less to fear.”
The wrong priorities
The current administration was wrong to reject Trump’s foreign policy, writes the pro-government daily Mandiner (Hungary):
“Even liberal geopolitical analysts have not denied that the Trump administration achieved significant successes in foreign policy between 2016 and 2020. So the Biden administration’s different approach and priorities in this area risked squandering the fruits of the previous four years and falling short of the high goals it had set for itself based on lofty principles. ... Biden’s Department of State has made both these mistakes.”
‘Any Resolution Must Respect Ukraine’s Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity’ – Ukraine at War Update for Jan. 15
Inflation persists despite growth
Biden is passing on a flourishing economy, but also unresolved problems, L’Echo (Belgium) concludes:
“At the end of his mandate, he deserves credit for a robust US economy with high growth and low unemployment. In particular his Inflation Reduction Act, a massive programme of investments in infrastructure and the energy transition, has proven to be a success. However, good labour market statistics and a glowing GDP cannot hide two major flaws. Firstly, the US deficit remains abysmal. Above all, however, inflation remains high. ... The rise in the cost of living is a burden on the middle class, without the boss in the White House seeming to have actually grasped the scale of the problem.”
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
