---

WHITE HOUSE — In his farewell address from the Oval Office Wednesday evening, U.S. President Joe Biden warned of the dangers of the concentration of power and wealth, highlighting the emergence of an “oligarchy” and a “tech-industrial complex.”

“The dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra wealthy people, the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked,” he said. “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom.”

The president did not say who he meant by oligarchy. But some of the nation’s biggest billionaires including Elon Musk have forged close ties with President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated Monday.

Musk spent more than $100 million towards Trump’s reelection, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have made large donations to Trump’s inaugural committee.

Without mentioning names, Biden made a jab at Zuckerberg’s recent decision that his social media company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, will stop working with fact checkers.

“The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking,” Biden said. “The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.”

Gaza ceasefire

Biden ended his term on a high note on foreign policy. Just hours earlier, he announced that Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire-and-hostage agreement in Gaza.

“It is the result not only of the extreme pressure that Hamas has been under and the changed regional equation after a ceasefire in Lebanon and weakening of Iran — but also of dogged and painstaking American diplomacy,” Biden said in a statement. “My diplomacy never ceased in their efforts to get this done.”

The deal will largely be implemented by the incoming administration, and in his farewell Biden said he is instructing his team to keep the incoming administration fully informed.

Trump immediately sought to take credit for the deal, posting on social media that “the ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November.”

On the foreign policy front, the administration insists it is leaving the incoming administration with a “very strong hand to play.”

“We’re leaving an America with more friends and stronger alliances, whose adversaries are weaker and under pressure,” Biden said in his foreign policy address delivered Monday. “An America that once again is leading, uniting countries, setting the agenda, bringing others together behind our plans and visions.”

The president again defended his decision to withdraw the United States from Afghanistan in 2021. Republicans and some Democrats have criticized the manner with which Biden ended America’s longest war as chaotic, costing the lives of 13 service members and dozens of Afghan civilians in a terrorist attack in Kabul.

Winter of peril and possibilities

In a letter released Wednesday morning, Biden reflected on how his administration began in the shadows of COVID-19 and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters intent on overturning the result of the 2020 election that Biden won.

“Four years ago, we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities,” he said in the letter. “But we came together as Americans, and we braved through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure.”

It was Biden’s fifth and final formal address from the Oval Office. In his previous Oval Office address six months ago, he explained his decision to step aside and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, to run against Trump in the 2024 election.

The president’s farewell address comes a day after Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted Trump on charges of illegally trying to cling to power after the 2020 election, released his final report. Smith’s report said the evidence would have been sufficient to convict the president-elect in a trial, had his 2024 election victory not made it impossible for the prosecution to continue.

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and attacked the special counsel’s work as politically motivated.

In July the U.S. Supreme Court granted Trump sweeping protections from criminal liability over his role in trying to undermine his 2020 defeat. Biden used his farewell address to call for a constitutional amendment to end immunity for sitting presidents.

Biden’s legacy

Biden is leaving office with a 39% approval rating, according to Gallup. Thomas Schwartz, a presidential historian from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said the president’s legacy will be affected by how Trump governs in the next four years.

“If Trump ends up being a disaster … either ushering economic chaos, or if there’s more world chaos from conflicts, Biden will be remembered more favorably,” he told VOA. “If Trump really proves to be as dangerous to democratic norms as Biden and the Democrats suggested, then I think he may be seen as very prophetic.”

Conversely, by inheriting a strong economy and a winding down of U.S. foreign entanglements, Trump has the potential to become a president in the caliber of Ronald Reagan, Schwartz said. In which case Biden will be noted by historians for his legislative achievements but “won’t be remembered as fondly.”

The White House also released an extensive fact sheet detailing the Biden-Harris administration’s achievements domestically and abroad.

The sheet highlighted historic economic progress that added 16.6 million jobs, grew the GDP by 12.6% and raised median household wealth by 37%. It underscored investments in infrastructure, clean energy, and semiconductors through Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act.

The White House argued that through targeted relief and fair taxation, the Biden administration rebuilt a “stronger, fairer economy,” creating opportunity from the bottom up.

Biden ended his farewell address by thanking the nation for the privilege to serve.

“I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands, a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure,” he said.

“Now it’s your turn to stand guard.”

Source: VOA

  address, biden, farewell