As the clock winds down on Joe Biden’s presidency, it is a fitting time to reflect on his tenure. History reminds us that presidents — from Ulysses S. Grant to Harry Truman to Donald Trump — are often viewed more favorably with time, but most Americans seem doubtful that Biden will benefit from such a reassessment. So how should we judge the Biden era?

It’s impossible to evaluate Biden’s presidency in isolation, as it is intrinsically tied to the man he was elected to replace, and who is now replacing him: Donald Trump.

It wasn’t destined to be this way. Having run as a transitional figure, Biden succumbed early to the fatal conceit that he could be a transformational leader, akin to Franklin D. Roosevelt or Lyndon B. Johnson. Reportedly encouraged by historians, Biden pursued ambitious goals but lacked the electoral mandate and the large congressional majorities that FDR and LBJ had leveraged to enact sweeping change.

This overreach defined Biden’s presidency. His executive orders quickly reversed some of Trump’s more restrictive immigration policies, which critics argue acted as a magnet for illegal border crossings. Even the New York Times acknowledged that Biden’s “more welcoming approach” encouraged parents to send migrant children across the border.

He also spent heavily on pandemic relief, with outlets such as Vox noting that the American Rescue Plan exacerbated inflation —........

© The Hill