◆ Biden aims to reshape the presidency itself.
After Trump, president-elect will focus on repairing image of office at home and abroad
WASHINGTON — When Joe Biden takes the oath of office Wednesday outside a wounded U.S. Capitol, he will begin reshaping the office of the presidency itself as he sets out to lead a bitterly divided nation struggling with a pandemic and an insurrection meant to stop his ascension to power.
Biden had campaigned as a rebuke to President Donald Trump. The Democrat framed his election as one to “heal the soul” of the nation and repair the presidency, restoring the
White House image as a symbol of stability and credibility.
In ways big and small, Biden will look to change the office he will soon inhabit. Incendiary tweets are out, wonky policy briefings are in. Biden, as much an institutionalist as Trump has been a disruptor, will look to change the tone and priorities of the office.
“Biden’s main task is going to be need to be to reestablish the symbol of the White House to the world as a place of integrity and good governance. Because right now everything is in disarray,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian and professor at Rice University. “But Biden is uniquely situated to do this, his whole life has been spent in Washington and he spent eight years watching the job up close.”
The changes will be sweeping, starting with the president’s approach to the COVID19 pandemic that has claimed nearly 400,000 American lives.
Trump flouted the virus, his staff largely eschewing masks in the warren of cramped West Wing offices while the president hosted “superspreader” events at the White House and on the road. Biden’s team is considering having many staffers work from home; those who do enter the building will wear masks. Biden has already been vaccinated, something Trump, who got the virus last fall, has chosen not to do despite suggestions that it would set an example for the nation.
While Trump filled out much of his Cabinet and White House staff with relatives, political neophytes and newcomers, Biden has turned to seasoned hands, bringing in Obama administration veterans and career officials.
Biden’s team will be tested by the tumult at home: a virus that is killing more than 4,000 people a day, a worsening economy and contention over the second impeachment trial for Trump.
Biden also has as much work ahead repairing the image of the presidency overseas as he does on American shores.
Trump repositioned the United States in the world, pulling the U.S. out of a number of trade deals and climate agreements in favor of a more insular foreign policy. His ever-shifting beliefs and moods strained relations with some of the nation’s oldest allies. As the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, Trump fostered competition, not cooperation, on research and vaccine development.
Biden has pledged a course correction. He has promised to repair alliances, rejoin the Paris climate treaty and the World Health Organization and said he would shore up U.S. national security by first addressing health, economic and political crises at home.
Offering the White House as a symbol of stability to global capitals won’t be easy for Biden as Trump’s shadow looms.
“He has a structural problem and needs to make the U.S. seem more reliable. We’re diminished in stature and less predictable,” said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. He noted that even after Biden’s win, the European Union bolstered ties to China with a new treaty.
“Everyone around the world is hedging, they have no idea if Biden’s a one-term president or what could come after him,” Haass said. “There is a fear across the world that Trump or Trumpism could return in four years.”