Biden has inherited America’s gravest crisis in 75 years

FOUR years ago, Donald Trump stood no more than 100 yards before me as he began painting a grim picture of America.

Just moments after being sworn in, he portrayed the US as a country under attack, losing its global influence and sense of worth, while saying its cities had been reduced to “carnage”.

For millions, it was an image they failed to recognise.

Under his predecessor Barack Obama, the US economy was soaring, never before had so many been provided vital affordable health care and employment was setting new highs.

Yesterday, when Joe Biden stood on the Capitol to be sworn in as the 46th President, he inherited a country resembling Trump’s dystopian vision much more closely than it did then. After having a front-row seat for many of Trump’s troublesome events, it is no wonder America is a country paralysed by the virus and division.

Whether it was caging children taken from their migrant parents, calling Far-Right killers “very fine people”, backing Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence agencies, calling countries “s***holes” or calling his own troops “suckers” and “losers”, the list goes on and on.

During Trump’s time in the White House, America was placed on the brink of war both at home and abroad while countless US cities were torn apart from civil unrest as communities were pitted against each other.

Never once did Trump show the required leadership – none more so than over his handling of his country’s Covid pandemic which he repeatedly called a hoax.

His time as US leader was focused on how the White House could further himself and his family, not the American people.

But a president’s most valuable commodity is time and thankfully for much of America and the rest of the world, Trump is now out of it.

As he today suns himself at his Florida mansion, he remains bitterly consumed with grievance over his election loss, remaining deluded that he actually won the election he lost.

For Biden though, now is the time he must concentrate on healing his nation with diplomacy and a moderate approach.

He will inherit the gravest national crisis faced by any new president in the past 75 years as he vows to bring Americans together, promising to look to the country’s past to shape the future he seeks to provide.

In doing so, he has invoked the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt, who led America out of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Typically, the start of a presidential administration is filled with expectation with new staff eager to make a change. But the feeling won’t be quite so intoxicating this time.

Biden’s number one priority is to tackle the crippling Covid virus that is running rampant throughout America.

Tens of millions remain out of work, and many children have not yet returned to the classroom.

But there is a less obvious but perhaps more daunting challenge he faces and that is rebuilding the US government after four years of Trump.

Biden’s decades of experience on the Capitol make him uniquely qualified to lead the reconstruction project and he must follow through on his campaign slogan of “build back better”.

But from a global perspective, the new President must rejoin the world – firstly by putting America back in the Paris Climate Agreement and then the Iran nuclear deal.

The two moves begin the most complex reconstruction job he faces – repairing America’s image abroad and uniting like-minded countries to work together to solve everyday challenges.

Trump’s hostility to multilateral organisations and disdain for traditional alliances have left the US more isolated and less influential than it’s been in decades.

But even among America’s friends, any assurances Biden provides will be treated with wariness after the volatility of the Trump years.

If America is going to get itself out of its mess, it’s going to need to ask for help, and Britain has already been earmarked by Biden as one of the most important to offer assistance.

Learning to accept America is no longer the power it was is surely the first step toward its recovery.

If America is going to get itself out of its mess, it’s going to need to ask for help