Washington | With 16 days left in a political career that spanned a half-century, President Joe Biden on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) conferred one of the nation’s highest honours on core members of the political, financial and celebrity establishment of which he has long been a part.

Mr Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 18 people, including some of the brightest lights of the old guard that president-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to tear down. In doing so, the 82-year-old president is sending an unmistakable message of support for a democratic order he has said is threatened by Trump’s re-election.