By Aditeya Das
Joe Biden has had an unusual term of presidency so far. Throughout the COVID 19 pandemic, he has fought fire after fire without end, managing tumultuous diplomatic relations and salvaging the state of the crippling US economy. Yet, one can’t look at Biden without making some degree of comparison to his predecessor, Trump. Has Biden truly fared better, did he and his party reign supreme in the past year of presidency?
Entering this battle is our presidency veteran: Donald Trump. In his first year of being President, Donald Trump had made headlines all over the world. His most notable proposal was the “Tax Cuts And Jobs Act” of 2017, the biggest tax code overhaul of 3 decades. Its biggest effect was that it doubled the standard deduction(The set amount of money reduced from tax paid) from 12,400 dollars to 24,800 dollars along with many other areas being improved.
However, he also had many low lights in the first year. From building a wall that would have been as useful as a concrete parachute, to a smokescreen of Twitter posts, Trump’s first year was filled with controversy. When he left Paris climate agreement, Trump signed up for perpetual condemnation and international disdain. The agreement was the world's largest environmental action agreement with 195 countries, working together to fight against climate change. In response to critics, he gave the line, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” which was just the starting point of a long line of questionable statements.
The “zero-tolerance” policy on the US-Mexico border only made matters worse. This was not only when Trump proposed for a wall to be built between the two countries, but also where children were being separated from their families with parents being detained or even deported. Not the best way to spend your first year as president.
Biden’s presidency was also good and bad in the same way. His passing of a one trillion-dollar infrastructure bill on 15th November 202 proved to be monumental for the Biden administration. The bill was primarily created for new federal spending, the building of roads, bridges, core infrastructure (Electricity, dams, etc), and covid relief. Although this bill had a massive price tag, the main success lay in its bipartisan nature (both republicans and democrats voted in favour of this bill), making his popularity in the eyes of his critics.
But, in a year where he had a win, there was also a dark side. The main problem in Biden’s first year as President has been his approval ratings. His ratings hit an all-time low of 36% according to Quinnipiac University approval rating polls, (kudos to anti-vaxxers, the messy pullout of Americans from Afghanistan, and inflation). Along with this, he was not able to get his “Build Back Better” bill( a bill that only if passed will be able to allow for his aforementioned infrastructure bill to be put into action), pass through parliament because of a single democrat who voted against. All of this combined has created a lethal concoction for President Biden.
Looking at both Presidents, you see some clear wins in their first year as well as some losses. Trump had taken advantage by passing his tax cuts and jobs act but fell right down with his messy words and the separation of Mexican Families. Biden on the other hand got a clear win with his infrastructure bill, but his approval ratings sank so low that his celebrations were short-lived. After all of this, I would like to say that Trump has had a better year. Unlike Joe Biden, Donald Trump was able to make some impact on his people in a good way by reducing taxes. Biden, on the other hand, spent his time passing an infrastructure bill that was rendered useless because of democratic Senator Joe Manchin voting against it. After all the hype that was centred around Trump being kicked out of office, what we have landed up with is a person whose approval ratings ended up being lower than Trump's were in 4 years. From this, I can conclude that Trump has had a better first year compared to Biden.
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