WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden warned Americans of a “dangerous concentration of power” in the hands of a “very few ultrawealthy people” and the impact he feared it would have on the country’s democracy as he delivered a farewell address Wednesday from the Oval Office.
“Today an oligarchy is taking shape in America — of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” said Biden, who was joined by his family and longtime aides.
The president said he worried of the consequences if wealthy Americans used their influence to win tax breaks, roll back efforts to combat climate change, and decrease accountability. Biden drew a parallel to former President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address, which warned of a “military industrial complex,” saying the nation now faced a threat from a “tech industrial complex.”
The speech, which capped the president’s five-decade career in politics, also returned to familiar themes about the need to preserve and protect democratic ideals. Taken as a whole, it offered a direct and populist critique of successor Donald Trump and his allies — many of whom are drawn from the ranks of the country’s business and financial elite.
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power,” Biden said.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, helped bankroll Trump’s electoral victory and has been given a broad portfolio in his new administration, while other tech titans have sought to curry favor with inaugural donations and pilgrimages to the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
“Powerful forces want to wield their unchecked influence to eliminate the steps we’ve taken to tackle the climate crisis, to serve their own interest for power and profit. We must not be bullied into sacrificing the future,” Biden said.
Biden has sought to cast his presidency as one defined by an economic turnaround in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and policies that strengthened U.S. alliances — but exits office with his party having lost control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. Biden’s approval rating has fallen to 36.1%, lower at this stage of his presidency than every one of his predecessors since Jimmy Carter, according to polling data aggregated by FiveThirtyEight.
On Wednesday, Biden listed accomplishments from winning billions of dollars of subsidies for the semiconductor industry to a sweeping infrastructure package, while also conceding that many Americans would not feel the impact of those programs for years.
“It will take time to feel the full impact of all we done together, but the seeds are planted, and they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come,” he said.
Biden also hailed advances in artificial intelligence, calling it the “the most consequential technology of our time — perhaps of all time” with “profound possibilities and risks” for all humanity.
“We must make sure AI is safe and trustworthy and good for all humankind,” Biden said. “It’s more important than ever that the people must govern and as a land of liberty, America, not China, must lead the world in the development of AI.”
Tumultuous Presidency
Wednesday’s address marked the end of a half-century of political life that saw Biden rise from the Senate to the White House only to endure a tumultuous presidency. He achieved early legislative victories but those were overtaken by voter angst about high inflation and worries about his age and mental acuity.
Those concerns, magnified by a faltering debate performance that highlighted his increasingly evident decline, saw him face pressure from his own party to set the stage for a younger generation and become the first U.S. president since 1968 to forgo seeking reelection.
Biden was joined in the Oval Office by Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced him atop the Democratic ticket and lost the election to Trump. While Biden and Harris cast Trump as an existential threat to American democracy, they will be attending his inauguration Monday, after the Republican pulled off one of the most stunning political comebacks in U.S. history.
Even as Biden spoke, Trump posted to his Truth Social platform to note that his incoming administration was quickly staffing up and to mock many of his political rivals.
Trump’s return to power threatens to cast Biden’s legacy to something of an aside — an interlude between the Republican’s presidencies that altogether led to nearly unfettered GOP control of Washington. It has also left Democrats grappling with how to rebuild their party and message.
Biden has expressed regrets about his departure from the 2024 presidential race, saying publicly that he thinks he could have defeated Trump.
In recent weeks, he has kept a quiet profile, seeking to focus his work on key priorities and trying to draw attention to achievements that have been somewhat overshadowed such as robust job growth, moderating but persistent inflation, flagship investments in manufacturing and infrastructure, and subsidies and measures to cap drug costs for older people and expand access to health insurance.
Even though voters repudiated his economic record in the election, Biden on Wednesday cast his policies as helping give a boost to working-class Americans.
“We see the consequences all across America, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. People should be able to make as much as they can, but play by the same rules. Pay their fair share of taxes,” he said.
Biden also appealed to Americans to be vigilant and defend their democratic institutions as he prepared to hand over the White House to his Republican successor.
“Believing in the idea of America means respecting the institutions that govern a free society — the presidency, the Congress, the courts, a free and independent press,” Biden said.
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(With assistance from Jenny Leonard.)
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