US President Joe Biden soothes international nerves but faces considerable challenges at home
Joe Biden has impressed world leaders despite his gaffes, but he will soon face the first true measure of his continuing appeal on home soil.
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There was an almost palpable sense of relief among world leaders who sat down with President Joe Biden for the first time on his heavy-hitting tour of Europe over the past fortnight.
The absence of his unpredictable predecessor, whose insults ranged from a notorious jostle for a front row position in a group photo to frequent threats to withdraw from NATO unless they “paid their way”, was keenly welcomed by the current world order.
French President Emmanuel Macron praised Biden’s more traditional approach when he said that America was “definitely” back as a co-operating partner.
“What we need is co-operation, and I think it’s great to have the US president part of the club and willing to co-operate, and I think that what you demonstrate is that leadership is partnership,” Macron said as the pair basked in the sunshine on the sidelines of the G7 summit at a Cornwall beach.
Biden replied: “We feel very, very strongly about the cohesion of NATO, and I for one think that the European Union is an incredibly strong and vibrant entity that has a lot to do with the ability of western Europe to not only handle its economic issues but provide the backbone and support for NATO.”
Biden’s most significant diplomatic foray was followed by one of the longer press conferences of his presidency, a space in which he is clearly uncomfortable.
Not only the president who waited longer than any for the past 100 years to hold his first press briefing, Biden has had a lifelong stutter and offers up frequent verbal stumbles.
In Europe these included cringe-worthy moments where G7 leaders openly laughed at him for reintroducing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa moments after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had done so, and confusing Libya and Syria several times in an address.
Biden’s gaffes have long supplied the oldest elected US president’s political enemies with the ammunition to describe him as “Sleepy Joe” and depict him as in age-related mental decline.
And there’s no denying he looked first like an extremely grouchy old man and then like a very tired one when he apologised for losing his temper with a CNN reporter at the close of a press conference following his first summit as leader with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin himself has spent the past six months laying out the case that Biden isn’t all there, a charge he walked back from the day after the pair met.
“I want to say that the image of President Biden that our, and even the American press, paints has nothing to do with reality,” Putin said Thursday in comments that must be taken in the context of the Russian strongman being a former intelligence chief.
“He’s a professional, and you have to be very careful in working with him to make sure you don’t miss anything. He doesn’t miss anything, I can assure you.”
On Wednesday night, Biden boarded air force One in Geneva and flew back to where he is much more comfortable – in the White House, off the front pages and further down the cable news bulletins.
Because despite enjoying gentler treatment from much of the American press than Trump, Biden has no love for the media attention.
“Five months into his presidency, it is clear that Biden has no need or wish to be in America’s face all the time,” said Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe.
“He isn’t gripped by a desperate craving to be seen and heard and talked about. After four years of a president whose narcissism was bottomless and exhausting, and, before him, eight years of a president who also didn’t suffer from any lack of vanity, Biden’s willingness to stay largely behind the scenes is not just refreshing, but downright admirable.
“Whatever Biden’s shortcomings, he is reminding Americans that a president’s job description needn’t include putting on a constant show, venting personal emotions, and keeping the public riled up.“
Biden’s European mission drew more headlines than he is used to but was nothing compared to the fire hose of news generated by Donald Trump’s unique diplomacy.
And that’s exactly how many Americans seem to want it.
“In some ways the most important message Biden was sending on this trip was that Trump is no longer the president,” said Tufts University emeritus professor Daniel Drezner.
“This was a normal foreign policy trip conducted by a normal president that produced solid results with the potential for greater pay-offs in the future.”
Back home in Washington, Biden faces several mountainous tasks.
The brightest point in his presidency has been the coronavirus vaccine rollout, a process started by Trump’s Operation Warp Speed but emphatically finalised by the Biden administration and which has been heralded an international success.
After the nightmare of a pandemic that cost at least 600,000 lives, a reopened (and 50 per cent vaccinated) America is about to enjoy a summer like no other, a fact depicted in newspaper front pages last week declaring that New York and Los Angeles are now completely reopened, with all restrictions lifted.
But despite his frequent talk of reuniting America, Biden remains leader of a nation that is deeply riven.
Violent crime and homelessness are on the rise in the country’s biggest cities, inflation is soaring and the racial and cultural reckoning sparked last year by the police murder of Minneapolis black man George Floyd continues.
Biden’s most immediate challenge is the passing of his massive US$2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan and his US$1.8 (A2.4) trillion American Families Plan.
Both enjoy popular approval but Congress has come to a standstill because even through Democrats hold both houses, their majority is slim and some Democrats aren’t supporting the measures.
Biden’s polling has been steadily tracking down (but remains above Trump’s) as Democrats lose faith in his ability to make progress and amid growing economic concerns.
From day one, Biden’s biggest domestic challenge has been the southern border with Mexico, which has seen a historic influx of illegal crossings in the past five months.
Rolling back Trump’s harsher immigration policies was a Biden election promise and there is little disputing that this has driven the increase.
A flat-footed response from Vice President Kamala Harris to the immigration portfolio she took on in March has also contributed, according to Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei.
“Humanitarian messages were used here by the coyotes in a distorted manner because what they (Democrats) said over there (in the US election) was that they will promote family reunification,” Giammattei said after meeting with Harris on her first foreign tour this month.
“So the coyotes came and took the children and the teenagers to the United States and the borders were full, not only with people from Guatemala, but with a lot of people from all over.”
The border crisis has also created space for the return to public life of his predecessor, who recently moved back to his New Jersey and New York bases after five months of semi-retirement in Florida.
Trump will this week commence a string of rallies, hoping for a repeat of the populist support that in large part delivered him the presidency in 2016.
The former president and many of his supporters continue to insist the election was stolen through voter fraud, charges that have not been proven.
Stripped of his social media presence as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram continue their bans on his accounts, Trump will return to the locations and messaging where he is most comfortable, with appearances in Ohio and Florida.
But by far the biggest circus will be a June 30 appearance on the Texas border with Mexico.
Trump has been invited to rally there with Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, who is expected to announce state funding to continue building the border wall which was halted by the Biden White House.
“The Biden administration inherited from me the strongest, safest, and most secure border in U.S. history and in mere weeks they turned it into the single worst border crisis in U.S. history,” Trump said in a statement last week.
“It’s an unmitigated disaster zone.”
The size of Trump’s crowds and the attention they garner will be the first true measure of his continuing appeal and will go some way to answering the question of how big a challenge Democrats face in midterm elections next year.
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