The unpredictable developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, inflation momentum and the midterm elections in 2022 can significantly impact President Joe Biden's goal of rebuilding America.
On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden was sworn in as President of the United States, becoming the oldest leader in the history of the country. President Biden's first year in office was a series of efforts to revive America from internal and external crises.
The start of a riot
The United States experienced an election in November 2020 that took a long time to count votes, the longest and most expensive legal battle in history, initiated by then-incumbent President Donald Trump.
On January 6, 2021, the two houses of Congress of the United States convened to count the electoral votes to officially declare Biden's victory. The meeting, which had long been a mere formality, turned into a divisive and chaotic "judgment day". For the first time in history, protesters stormed the Capitol, took the Speaker's seat, disrupted the meeting and put American democracy in jeopardy. There was bloodshed, gunfire, people died. Police, FBI, National Guard were deployed, dozens of people were arrested. The Capitol is paralyzed.
On January 20, the inauguration of President Joe Biden took place in a situation of high security alert. The White House also officially changed hands in many great expectations. Mr. Biden's mission is to get the US out of the specter of Covid-19, alleviate the losses, heal the rifts and unite the people to rebuild a better America.
What to do and what to get?
On the first day of office, President Biden embarked on solving a series of problems besieging the United States, including the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 17 executive orders and directives were signed by Mr. Biden on January 20.
Domestically, the Biden administration has done two big things. One is to accelerate the Covid-19 vaccination program, which has continuously experienced unexpected milestones. As of December 23, the US has injected a total of more than 500 million doses, of which at least one is 240 million (72.7% of the population); fully vaccinated is 204.7 million (61.7% of the population); booster nose is 64.5 million, according to the data of the US CDC. With that effort, the American people can return to normal life and this is the most outstanding achievement of 2021 of the Biden administration. The second mark is lobbying the US Congress to pass a record Covid-19 relief package worth $1.9 trillion to revive the economy as well as help people and businesses during the time of struggling with the pandemic.
Regarding foreign affairs, President Biden's pledge is to bring America back to the world, after a controversial term of his predecessor Trump. There have been policy reversals when Mr. Biden brought the US back to a series of multilateral frameworks, restored US membership in the World Health Organization (WHO), as one of the key countries. participating in contributing vaccines to the COVAX mechanism, re-joining the Paris Agreement on climate change, returning to the negotiating table on the Iran nuclear issue.
Strategic competition between the US - China and the US - Russia in 2021 continues to be a hot topic with a series of emerging issues such as security in Ukraine or Taiwan. In addition to unilateral moves, the US also strengthens coordination with allies and partners to cope. The summit talks over the past year of the two relationship pairs took place but did not yield any major breakthroughs.
The year 2021 will also see the landmark decision of the US to completely withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. This decision was controversial, especially when the situation in the Middle Eastern country completely changed: the Taliban returned to power. However, there are also many people who support Biden's decision because the US has come out of the longest war in its history abroad.
Challenges in 2022
Biden's mission to repel Covid-19 seemed to have been successful, but now faces a challenge in the context of the emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2. With the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, the United States continues to face the risk of a new wave of epidemics. It should be noted that the US still records more than 200,000 new infections and more than 1,000 deaths per day. Mr. Biden himself must admit that America's fight against Covid-19 still has a long way to go.
Economically, although the unemployment rate dropped to a record 4.2%, inflation and high prices are still hot issues in the US. There are many resonating reasons for high inflation in the US, and observers say that the situation is very worrying when it can last for many years. This puts great pressure on the Biden administration and the US Congress in the near future.
2022 will also be decisive for the Biden administration when the US holds the midterm elections. Republicans are determined to win back both houses after falling to Democrats. In addition, assessments of the achievements and limitations of Mr. Biden's first year in office have had a great impact on the level of public confidence in him. Currently, Biden's approval rating is still on the decline. If Democrats lose seats and Republicans return to the majority, the Biden administration's future policy ambitions and proposals will be in jeopardy. Further, it could affect the future of the owner of the White House in 2024, when he wants to be re-elected.
Meanwhile, Mr. Biden's foreign policy record still has huge gaps. His goal of rebuilding the world's confidence in an America that leads is unclear when he still has to take care of domestic affairs. The issues of Iran, North Korea, the wave of immigrants, tensions with Russia or China are all unresolved. This will continue to be Mr. Biden's challenge next year to restore credibility globally.