Biden faces doubts over his legacy as he prepares to hand over power to the man he called a threat to democracy
For years, President Joe Biden has used a single phrase to diminish his onetime rival Donald Trump while signaling his own adherence to American political tradition: “You can’t love your country only when you win.”
As Biden conceded his vice president’s loss to Trump from the White House Rose Garden on Thursday, the line carried a different significance.
No longer finger-wagging at a defeated rival who refused to acknowledge his loss, Biden is now overseeing a transition back into office by the man he once – and still – believes is an existential threat to democracy.
Instead of using his final 10 weeks in power to cement his promise to act as a generational bridge and tout his signature accomplishments, Biden finds himself in one of the worst possible positions: A president acknowledging the loss of a race in which he was pushed out, preparing to be displaced by a man who for years he has cast as an existential threat to democracy in America.
Yet if those crushing factors are weighing deeply on Biden, his demeanor in the Rose Garden belied the hurt.
Seeking to comfort Americans scared of the prospects of another Trump term, while his own legacy remains in question, Biden was upbeat rather than downtrodden.
“Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable,” the president said in the Rose Garden during his first public remarks since Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. “We all get knocked down, but the measure of our character, as my dad would say, is how quickly we get back up.”
He was welcomed into the garden by a crowd of staffers and Cabinet members, who cheered for him as he walked from the Oval Office.
“Campaigns are contests of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made,” he said, making explicit that he accepted the results of the election.
“Remember,” Biden said, “a defeat does not mean we are defeated. We lost this battle. The America of your dreams is calling for you to get back up.”
Biden in his remarks was intentional in his efforts to endorse the sanctity of the election and acknowledge Trump’s resulting victory.
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Within one day, both Biden and Harris conceded defeat and congratulated Trump, with efforts underway for the former and now-future president to visit the White House – all things Trump never did in the four years after his loss to Biden.
Biden drew implicit comparisons to the non-transition from four years ago, listing the steps he was taking that were never offered to him when he beat Trump. He also used the moment to again push back on questions of election integrity after years of false allegations from his predecessor — and now successor.
“I also hope we can lay to rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system,” Biden said. “It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent, and it can be trusted – win or lose.”
What comes next for Biden’s policy legacy is uncertain. Trump threatens to withdraw from some of the relationships with foreign powers that Biden had spent years personally developing during his time on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Few of Biden’s signature accomplishments can’t be undone by his successor.
In his speech, Biden suggested the true scope of his legacy won’t be known for years.
“Much of the work we’ve done is already being felt by the American people but the vast majority of it will not be felt – it’ll be felt over the next 10 years,” he said.
Yet as much as Biden could be remembered for his infrastructure law, his student-loan forgiveness program or his leadership through the country’s recovery from the pandemic, his legacy may hinge as much on how history judges his decision to stay in the race for as long as he did, depriving Harris of the chance to introduce herself to the country much earlier.
Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, who served as co-chair of both Biden and Harris 2024 campaigns and is one of the most outspoken supporters of the president, told CNN the day after the election that he was prepared to defend his friend from any Democratic finger-pointing.
“The Biden administration got a huge amount done, as you’ve heard me recite with great frequency. I do think the party has some soul-searching to do,” Coons said.
After ticking off policies that he said were widely popular that the Biden administration should be credited for – including lowering the prices of prescription drugs and investing in infrastructure projects – the senator lamented: “But (voters) do not recognize that that’s what he got done. So we need to think about how we communicate that.”
But if aides and allies of the president are eager to publicly defend Biden and his work, frustration is boiling over across the Democratic Party on his decision to seek a second term – despite his initial promise to be a “transition” and “bridge” candidate.
Had he stepped aside in the middle of his first term, the party would have had a chance to hold a primary contest and nominate their strongest candidate, they say – whether that would have ultimately ended up being Harris, or not.
“He should have stepped aside sooner,” said one former Biden administration official, before adding: “I just don’t know if that would have mattered.”
A senior Harris campaign official, who said they do not believe a competitive Democratic primary process would have put Harris at the top of the ticket this cycle, told CNN they blamed Biden’s own ego – and all of his top advisers who shot down any suggestion from Democrats that the party needed new leadership.
“The lack of a competitive process for a replacement; that he didn’t allow for that to happen – people are still angry about the shunning that they took for speaking out earlier about him,” the official said.
But Biden addressed none of those recriminations in the Rose Garden on Thursday. Yet even as he sought to project a sense of optimism during his short remarks, he betrayed a hint of doubt about the future.
“The road ahead is clear,” Biden said, “assuming we sustain it.”
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
Trump’s master plan for a radical reformation of the US government
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
President-elect Donald Trump has promised to completely remake the US government and wield new power as president.
The ambitious promises, if enacted, would transform society. Some of his most-repeated promises on the campaign trail include:
- Mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants
- Closing the southern border and ending birthright citizenship
- Unprecedented tariffs on foreign goods from all countries, but especially China
- Expansive tax cuts to benefit corporations, tipped workers, seniors on Social Security, property owners in the Northeast and many others
- Trillions in cuts in government spending with help from Elon Musk
- Reforming the country’s health and food systems with help from vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Reversing regulations aimed at addressing climate change
- Building a new missile defense shield with help from former NFL player Herschel Walker
- And so much more
Now Americans will find out what was hyperbole and what was real – what is achievable and what he will be able to push through by himself, with help from Congress and without interference by the courts.
His pledge to end Russia’s war on Ukraine “in 24 hours,” for example, seems overwrought, to say the least.
His pledge for a mass deportation effort, on the other hand, is very serious. It seems to be backed up by some clear planning but there’s a lack of public details.
Is there a master plan?
During the campaign, Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025, the controversial and detailed blueprint for a newly reimagined federal government published by conservatives at the Heritage Foundation in anticipation of a second Trump term.
While Trump may not want to associate with that plan, it was formulated by his allies – at least 140 people associated with Project 2025 worked in Trump’s administration, according to a review by CNN’s Steve Contorno. Certainly there is some overlap between much of what the 900-page Project 2025 proposes and what Trump has said he will do in a series of very simple “Agenda47” videos on his website laying out his plans for a second term.
In one Agenda47 video, for instance, Trump promises to have an executive order prepared to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. The 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, so expect court fights if this happens.
One of the policy maestros of Protect 2025, Russell Vought – who served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term – was captured on hidden camera by undercover journalists over the summer talking about an aggressive agenda he was writing to get Trump’s new administration off to an active start in its first 180 days.
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On mass deportations
Trump’s most aggressive promise is the rounding up and deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Expect Trump to come into office with a series of executive orders already written to reinstate border policies unwound by the Biden administration.
Such is the yo-yoing of US immigration policy given that Congress has been unable to pass meaningful reform for decades. What’s not clear is how exactly Trump will go about closing the US border and whether it will include the US military, the National Guard or local law enforcement agencies.
Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller said on Fox News to expect deportations to begin the moment Trump is again president on January 20, 2025.
“They begin on Inauguration Day, as soon as he takes the oath of office,” he said.
But it’s still not clear exactly how deportations will work. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Florida Republican, told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Thursday that he expects every undocumented immigrant will continue to get a hearing before he or she is deported, something that will require the hiring of a large number of additional government workers if deportations are amplified to a massive scale. The current process is lengthy.
“I agree; it’s going to be a very, very big task,” Gimenez said. “And my hope is, and I expect, that we’ll just simply follow the law.”
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez reported there have already been discussions among Trump allies and some in the private sector to detain and deport migrants at a large scale – though any operation would come with a big price tag.
She noted that Tom Homan, who was acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term, has said a deportation effort would start with anyone accused of a crime. It’s not clear what would happen to so-called Dreamers, people brought to the US as children who have lived most of their lives here. Some of them are protected by an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that Trump tried unsuccessfully to end during his first term.
Plans to ‘aggressively’ fire government workers and move agencies out of DC
At the end of his first term, Trump planned to reclassify a large portion of the federal civilian workforce to make it easier to fire federal workers. Commonly referred to as “Schedule F,” Trump’s plan was to undo long-standing protections for nonpartisan civil servants.
The Biden administration has put some roadblocks in place to ward against such reclassification, but Trump promises in an Agenda47 video to immediately begin working to reinstate it so that he can “remove rogue bureaucrats.” He says he will also “clean out all of the corrupt actors” in the national security and intelligence apparatus and “immediately” move federal agencies out of the nation’s capital.
John McEntee, who was director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office during Trump’s first administration, worked on Project 2025, building a list of Trump loyalists suitable for administration roles. He remains close to Trump, according to CNN’s report on Trump’s transition.
McEntee said recently he wasn’t involved with the policy recommendations in Project 2025, even though he said, “I agree with probably most of it.” Instead, he’s interested in “staffing the president with good people … I think he deserves that.”
What about Trump’s Cabinet?
Trump likes to associate himself and his programs with boldface names. Musk will have a role in government efficiency but probably not a Cabinet position. Kennedy says he wants to give individuals more agency to reject vaccines for their children, but perhaps that does not mean he will have a Cabinet position. Does Trump’s promise at a rally in Georgia to put Walker in charge of a missile defense program mean an official government job for the failed Senate candidate?
There are 26 people in President Joe Biden’s Cabinet. Some, like CIA director or US ambassador to the United Nations, can be added or subtracted depending on the administration. Only two of the 26 potential positions in a Trump Cabinet are in place. Look for Trump to continue naming top officials in the coming days.
In addition to Vice President-elect JD Vance, Trump’s first key personnel news came Thursday night when he announced Susie Wiles, his campaign manager, would become his chief of staff. She’ll be the first woman to hold the position. Trump went through four such top aides during his previous administration. The longest-serving of those, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, had warned against Trump’s election.
Trump can simply hire a chief of staff, but most Cabinet positions, like secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, will require Senate confirmation. Trump will have a Republican majority in the Senate, which should ease the confirmation of key positions, but each of the ultimate Cabinet appointees will have a confirmation hearing before they get a vote.
Frustrated by the difficulty of getting Cabinet officials confirmed during his first administration, Trump frequently appointed people as “acting” secretaries, although those appointments can only be made on a temporary basis.
Trump’s oldest son, Donald Jr., said on Fox News that Trump will prize loyalty and look for “people who don’t think that they know better than the duly elected president of the United States.”
Taking power away from Congress
Trump won’t have the 60 votes he’ll need to shoot sweeping legislation quickly through Congress without bipartisan support in the Senate. It’s not yet clear if Republicans will hold control of the House, but any majority will be slim.
One of his big plans to challenge current governing norms that’s gotten less attention is his pledge to seize some power over government spending from Congress. In one Agenda47 video, Trump says he would try to reassert the principle of “impoundment,” by which a president can reject spending instructions from Congress and use taxpayer money in other ways.
Congress reined in presidents with a law after the Nixon administration, but Trump says he will challenge it and take more power for the president.
Here’s what Trump is proposing for the economy
President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail laid out a broad array of ideas aimed at providing tax relief, cutting prices, hiking tariffs and strengthening the economy, which ranks at the top of voters’ concerns.
Nearly all of the measures, which lack detail, would require congressional approval. That could be tough to achieve in the partisan climate on Capitol Hill.
Here’s what you need to know about what Trump has said he’ll do to address the economy:
Tackle expiring tax cuts
Some parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one of Trump’s signature achievements during his time in the White House, are scheduled to lapse at the end of 2025.
While the law reduced taxes for most people, Democrats often criticize the TCJA for disproportionately benefiting the wealthy.
Trump wants to extend all the individual income and estate tax cuts that the 2017 law provided. This includes, among other things, an increase to the standard deduction, lower marginal income tax rates for most income brackets, and an increase to the estate tax exemption.
Trump has suggested he would get rid of the cap on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT. The TCJA limited the deduction to $10,000, but the controversial cap expires at the end of 2025.
Additionally, Trump has called for lowering the corporate tax rate to 15% for certain companies. The TJCA permanently lowered the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.
Trump would also restore companies’ ability to immediately deduct investments in equipment and research.
Eliminate taxes
The president-elect has rolled out a series of targeted tax breaks, including eliminating federal taxes on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay.
Trump has promised an end to taxes on tips. Though his campaign hasn’t released details on the proposal, Trump has indicated that he would eliminate both federal income taxes and payroll taxes, which fund Social Security and Medicare.
Virtually all tipped workers would get some tax relief if Trump also gets rid of payroll taxes on tips, the Tax Policy Center found. However, these workers would then get smaller Social Security payments after they retire.
Seeking to appeal to senior citizens, a dedicated voting bloc, Trump has vowed that Social Security recipients would no longer have to pay taxes on the monthly benefits they receive. Around half of beneficiaries – mainly those with higher incomes – pay federal income tax on their Social Security payments.
In addition, Trump has proposed jettisoning taxes on overtime pay, though his campaign has not provided any details. However, if workers don’t owe payroll taxes on their overtime compensation, they could receive less from Social Security in retirement.
If enacted, all three of these measures could reduce the taxes that help fund Social Security, which could deplete the program’s trust funds by 2031 and force a roughly 30% cut in benefits for enrollees if the revenue is not replaced, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Trump has also floated ending the federal income tax and replacing it with revenue from tariffs.
Help the middle class
The former president unveiled on the campaign trail several measures aimed at helping Americans afford the cost of living.
He has said he would temporarily cap credit card interest rates at around 10%, which is less than half the current rate.
And Trump promised to make the interest paid on car loans fully tax deductible, similar to the popular existing deduction for mortgage interest. While he argues this will stimulate car ownership, some experts say it will mainly help wealthier Americans who itemize their deductions – and who typically buy more expensive cars.
To assist aging seniors and their family members, Trump has said he would push for a tax credit for family caregivers. Also, he would shift resources to at-home care and end disincentives that lead to care worker shortages, according to his platform.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has floated beefing up the child tax credit to $5,000 per child, but the president-elect has not formally adopted that idea.
Boost tariffs and trade
Trump has said that, if elected again, he will impose an across-the-board tariff of either 10% or 20% on every import coming into the US, as well as a tariff upward of 60% on all Chinese imports.
He’s also floated a 100% or 200% tariff on cars made in Mexico or on the products made by companies that move manufacturing from the US to Mexico.
Trump claims that tariffs will boost American manufacturing, create jobs and bring in billions of dollars to help pay for other policy initiatives – like tax cuts.
But it’s unlikely the revenue generated from new tariffs would fully cover his spending proposals. The duties would also likely raise prices on American consumers. Trump, for years, has inaccurately claimed that foreign countries pay the tariffs. They are paid by importers based in the US.
Separately, Trump has said he will renegotiate the USMCA trade deal his own administration struck with Mexico and Canada.
Cut prices
The former president repeatedly blasted the Biden-Harris administration for the surge in prices in recent years. He has promised to reverse course and lower the prices of gas, groceries and other essentials, though he hasn’t provided many details on how he’d accomplish that.
Trump has repeatedly said he will bring down prices by boosting oil and gas production. He’s vowed to allow for more drilling and reduce regulations. But those efforts may have a limited effect on prices at the pump, which in the US are highly dependent on the global oil market.
Trump has also promised to rescind unspent funds under the Inflation Reduction Act, a milestone climate law backed by the Biden administration, as well as to create a new efficiency commission to conduct a financial and performance audit of the federal government. He said in September that tech billionaire Elon Musk has agreed to lead the commission.
Make housing more affordable
The president-elect has not rolled out a formal housing proposal but has talked on the campaign trail about ways he’d help homeowners.
Trump has promised to make housing more affordable and to boost supply by getting rid of regulations that increase costs and by opening up some federal land available for large-scale housing construction.
He has also said falling interest rates will send mortgage rates down to 3% or even lower, which will make financing less expensive for homebuyers. (However, presidents don’t control interest rates.)
Trump has also blamed undocumented immigrants for driving up the cost of housing, which he would address through mass deportations and by banning them from getting mortgages.
The platform of the Republican Party also notes that it would “promote homeownership through Tax Incentives and support for first-time buyers.”
Invest in US businesses
The former president has said that his plans to increase tariffs and cut the corporate tax rate will result in a boom in American manufacturing.
He has said he will impose tariffs on companies that move manufacturing from the US to another country and, in September, specifically threatened John Deere with tariffs if the company doesn’t abandon plans to move some production from the Midwest to Mexico.
The idea is that tariffs will make foreign-made goods more expensive compared with those made in the US. But prices can go up for US manufacturers too if they need to import certain parts. And there will likely be retaliatory tariffs imposed by other countries, making it harder for US companies to sell goods abroad. In 2019, Federal Reserve economists found that Trump’s earlier tariffs led to a net decrease in manufacturing employment.
In September, he called his proposal to reduce the corporate tax rate to 15% for companies that make products in the US the “centerpiece” of his plan for a manufacturing renaissance.
Make health care more affordable
While health care was a main focus of Trump’s first term – when he unsuccessfully tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act and issued multiple executive orders and proposals aimed at reducing drug prices – the president-elect is not placing the same emphasis on the issue during this campaign.
He has alternated between saying he would like to try again to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a better program. When pressed at a September debate, Trump said he had “concepts of a plan.”
Vance sought to fill in some of the details in interviews in September. After initially indicating support for separating healthy and sicker Obamacare enrollees into different risk pools, which could threaten the law’s protections for those with preexisting conditions, he later backed off that view. In October’s vice presidential debate, he said he supports federal approval of state reinsurance programs, which have generally lowered Obamacare premiums by providing funding for insurers that enroll many high-cost patients.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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