WASHINGTON (AP) – When Joe Biden takes the oath of office on Wednesday in front of an injured United States Capitol, he will begin to remodel his own presidential office as he sets out to lead a bitterly divided nation struggling with a pandemic. devastating and an insurrection destined to stop his rise to power.
Biden campaigned as a rebuke to President Donald Trump, a singular figure whose political power was fueled by discord and complaints. The Democrat framed his election as an election to “heal the soul” of the nation and repair the presidency, restoring the image of the White House as a symbol of stability and credibility.
In big and small ways, Biden will try to change the office he will soon occupy. Incendiary tweets were launched, unstable political instructions arrived. Biden, as institutionalist as Trump has been a troublemaker, will try to change the tone and priorities of the office.
“It’s really about restoring some dignity to the office, choosing the truth over lies, unity over division,” said Biden shortly after launching his campaign. “It’s about who we are.”
The White House is about 2 miles from Capitol Avenue Pennsylvania, where broken windows, heavy fortifications and hundreds of National Guard members provide a visible reminder of the power of a president’s words. Trump supporters left a demonstration by the president on January 6 near the White House to commit violence on his behalf on Capitol Hill, besieging the citadel of democracy and highlighting the Herculean task that Biden faces in trying to heal the country’s devastating divisions.
Few presidents have taken office, having thought more about the brand they want to leave than Biden. He spent more than 40 years in Washington and won the White House after two previous failed attempts. He often praises his former boss, President Barack Obama, as an example of how to lead during the crisis.
“Biden’s main task will be to restore the White House symbol to the world as a place of integrity and good governance. Because now everything is a mess, ”said Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian and professor at Rice University. “But Biden has a unique location to do that, his whole life was spent in Washington and he spent eight years watching the work closely.”
The changes will be far-reaching, starting with the president’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed nearly 400,000 American lives. The sudden break with Trump will come not only in federal politics, but in personal conduct.
Trump scoffed at the virus, his team largely avoiding masks in the labyrinth of West Wing’s cramped offices, while the president organized “super-spread” events at the White House and on the road. Biden’s team is considering having many employees working from home; those who enter the building will wear masks. Biden has already been vaccinated, something that Trump, who contracted the virus last fall, chose not to do, despite suggestions that he would set an example for the country.
Biden’s approach to the day-to-day responsibilities of the office will also take a break from his predecessor. On the one hand, Twitter will not be the main source of news.
The trail of Trump’s tweets rocked the capital for four years. In Washington, phones buzzed with alerts whenever the president used his most powerful political weapon to attack Democrats and keep Republicans on the line.
Biden’s tweets tend to be tasteless to the press and policy details with the occasional “Business is as follows, folks” included as a good measure. Allied lawmakers are unlikely to have to pretend they didn’t see the most recent post to avoid commenting on it.
Biden said he wants Americans to see the president as a model again; enough of crass and humiliating language or racist and divisive rhetoric. His team has promised to restore daily news briefings and the president-elect does not refer to the press as “the enemy of the people”. But it remains to be seen whether he will be as accessible as Trump, who even his post-election hibernation answered more questions from reporters than any of his recent predecessors.
While Trump occupied much of his office and the White House with relatives, political neophytes and newcomers to the government, Biden turned to experienced hands, bringing in Obama administration veterans and career officials.
Policy documents will be back in fashion and the Chyron cable government is likely to be launched.
Trump was mostly indifferent to the machinations of Congress, at times appearing to be an observer of his own administration. Biden, a longtime senator who will have Democratic control of both houses, is positioned to use the weight of his office to promote an ambitious legislative agenda.
His team will be tested, however, by the turmoil at home: a virus that is killing more than 4,000 people a day, a slow vaccination distribution program, a worsening economy and strife over Trump’s second impeachment trial.
Biden also has as much work ahead of him to repair the image of the presidency abroad as it does on the American coast.
Trump has repositioned the United States in the world, withdrawing the United States from a series of multilateral trade agreements and climate agreements in favor of a more insular foreign policy. Their ever-changing beliefs and moods have damaged relations with some of the country’s oldest allies, including much of Western Europe.
When the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, Trump fostered competition, not cooperation, in vaccine research and development. Trump has also abandoned the traditional role that the president plays in illuminating human rights abuses around the world.
Biden, who spent years on the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee and had a vast foreign policy portfolio as vice president, promised a course correction. He promised to repair alliances, rejoin the Paris climate treaty and the World Health Organization and said he would strengthen US national security by addressing health, economic and political crises at home first.
Offering the White House as a symbol of stability for global capitals will not be easy for Biden as Trump’s shadow approaches.
“He has a structural problem and needs to make the United States look more reliable. Our stature is reduced and we are less predictable, ”said Richard Haass, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. He noted that even after Biden’s victory, the European Union has strengthened ties with China with a new investment treaty.
“Everyone around the world is hedging, they have no idea whether Biden is president of a term or what can come after him,” said Haass. “There is a fear around the world that Trump or Trumpism could return in four years.”
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