Most people are counting the days until President Trump takes office—we’ll be restoring our reputation, overcoming our economic woes, eliminating the remainder of the woke agenda, and acting like America again.

But it’s not going to be that easy, and recovering from the past four years is going to be a serious challenge. Part of the difficulty is that the populace may grow impatient, even if they know rationally that making changes like these will take time. Inflation didn’t grow overnight; the damage to our international relationships took time to ruin; restoring our national security (between the border invasion and the shrinking military) will be a slow process. Even when Trump is enthusiastic, he still has a narrow margin in Congress to support him—assuming he does get support from the Republicans.

So just how bad is the damage Biden’s done?

On the international scene, we have disappointed a number of allies. Saudi Arabia has no idea where Biden is coming from, or what his motives are. Although Benjamin Netanyahu praises U.S. support of the Gaza War, Biden seesaws between his willingness and his refusal to send arms if Israel doesn’t comply with his demands for a ceasefire. Since it looks like a deal is imminent (although I don’t know how a deal can be imminent after several weeks of negotiating), Biden has backed off on his pressure. He can’t seem to decide whether to reject Iran or get in bed with them, so he’s made half-hearted attempts to impose sanctions, while he continues to supply them with cash. His ambivalent efforts to supply Ukraine with war materiel has compromised their fighting efforts. The embarrassing, costly and incompetent exit from Afghanistan will never be forgotten. And then there are the complications with the Russia/China/Ukraine relationships:

In fact, thanks to Biden’s actions (or inaction), the incoming Trump administration faces difficult policy choices on the Ukraine war and China’s aggressive expansionism in Asia, as well as containing the Middle East conflicts.

With Biden’s foreign policy having driven Russia and China into an ‘unholy alliance’ against the U.S., the new administration must also find ways to shove a wedge between these two nuclear powers, lest their growing collaboration unravel America’s global preeminence.

Biden has also showed signs of aligning with autocratic governments that don’t practice democracy:

From visiting Communist-ruled Vietnam and fist-bumping Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to propping up a military installed regime in Bangladesh, Biden undercut his own ‘democracy vs. autocracy’ narrative. To make matters worse, he remained silent on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s own move toward authoritarianism.

But maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by his efforts to rub elbows with authoritarians. He demonstrated his own authoritarian tendencies during the Covid-19 pandemic, including mask mandates, business closures, school closures, and the battle over “vaccines” as terms of employment.

Our international relationships can certainly have an impact on our national security, but there are even greater challenges: funding the military is one of them, due to our supplying other countries at war:

The President’s $850 billion request for the Pentagon in 2025 is a mere 1% increase over 2024. That’s a cut after inflation, the fourth in a row Mr. Biden has proposed. What’s happened in the past year? Israel was brutally attacked and is now fighting a war for survival. Iranian proxies have fired drones and rockets at U.S. troops in the region more than 100 times, and its terrorists in Yemen have taken a global shipping lane hostage.

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is a bloody slog that he could still win. North Korea is ratcheting up its belligerence toward South Korea, which the U.S. is bound to defend. China announced recently a 7.2% increase in defense spending.

Our Army and Navy are also going to shrink:

The Army is asking for 442,300 troops, though the Biden Administration requested 485,000 as recently as 2022. The healthier number for the missions required is 500,000. Shrinking the force is no substitute for fixing the underlying problem, which is a struggle to find recruits.

The U.S. Navy will purchase only six ships and retire 10 early, which would shrink the fleet to 287 ships in 2025 from 296 today. Perhaps the most egregious choice is the Administration’s decision to purchase only one Virginia-class attack submarine, instead of a planned two.

You can be sure that our enemies are watching our cutbacks in staffing and equipment.

Biden’s insistence on cutting Trump’s Executive Orders when he began his tenure were incredibly foolish. This step was taken as a demonstration of his rejection of Trump’s policies. Unfortunately, he coupled those decisions by essentially establishing an open border. We had illegal migrants enter from all over the world, including terrorists, criminals, and drug dealers. Now President Trump will have to face the blowback of a mass deportation of illegals.

To say that the Biden administration has lost the confidence of the public would be an understatement. And that lack of confidence will affect the new Trump administration, and the presidency as a whole. Although many people like to point to Trump’s use of hyperbole and label them lies, Biden’s lies are whoppers. He lied about the circumstances of leaving Afghanistan; he lied about inflation; he lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop; he lied about his connections with Hunter’s business partners; his staff lied about his dementia; he lied about the details of his own past; he lied about his work on the Covid-19 vaccine (and didn’t give credit to Trump). The list could go on.

Finally, the collusion of the legacy media with the assessments, facts, and circumstances of the Biden administration is an issue. Yes, I’m blaming Biden for that. He never corrected the media that spread his lies. You might say that his addressing the media would have compromised the separation of their relationship.

But we all know that the legacy media were complicit with the Biden administration.

They all get their share of the blame.

So, let’s hope that the public is patient about the changes that Trump will be making. Even if he hits the ground running, gets approvals for his Cabinet picks, and passes Executive Orders, bringing us back from the brink may take time.

Image generated by AI.