EDITORIAL

By Olivia Z. ‘24

During one of the most contentious elections in United States history, President Joe Biden made many steep campaign promises in order to beat out former president Donald Trump. While many people feel relief that Trump is out of the White House, it is still important to examine how Biden’s actions throughout his first 100 days of presidency have followed the expectations he set while campaigning.

The coronavirus pandemic only heightened the competition of the 2020 election. After Trump spent months downplaying and politicizing the severity of the virus, it became clear that it would be a key topic of debate between Trump and Biden. During Trump’s presidency, he did little to nothing to prevent the spread of COVID and in many cases promoted it. On December 8th of 2020, Biden said that his administration would “be able to get at least 100 million vaccinations done in my first 100 days.” This goal was however surpassed when on his 92nd day in office, 200 million doses had been administered. This is a great success for the Biden administration as they have both exceeded their own expectations and worked to protect the general population from a deadly virus. Biden also promised to implement a nationwide mask mandate, but this however was not successful. Biden’s team concluded that it was not possible for them to achieve this nationwide, but he was able to create an executive order stating that mask guidelines and social distancing must be practiced on federal property. It was also stated that Biden would have the majority of schools open within the first one hundred days of his term. According to the New York Times, Biden has been successful with 88% of schools open. Biden also passed a 1.9 trillion-dollar COVID relief package; this included funding for state and local governments, vaccine distribution, reopenings, and stimulus checks to individual citizens.

Another pivotal topic during presidential debates was the taxation of the upper class. Trump introduced significant tax cuts for wealthier people and companies. In June of 2019, Biden said that “on Day One, I will move to eliminate Trump’s tax cuts.” This is a promise that Joe Biden was not able to uphold. The Biden administration has not taken steps to reverse the tax cuts passed by Republicans in 2017. Biden is however still confident that he will eliminate these tax cuts during his term, but he did not take action on the issue within his first 100 days in office as promised, let alone on his first day.  

Biden stated in a 2019 speech that he has “long argued that we should bring home the vast majority of our combat troops from the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East.” United States troops have been present in the Middle East for nearly two decades and 6,118 Americans have died in Afghanistan since the attacks on September 11th. Biden has since set into motion a plan to withdraw all American soldiers by September 11th, 2021, the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that led to the United States’ occupation of Afghanistan. The Biden administration’s plan to end the United States’ occupancy of Afghanistan does align with his campaign promises, but it does not meet the May 1st deadline that the Trump administration negotiated with the Taliban. Biden has also said that he will rejoin the Iran Nuclear deal, which was negotiated to prevent Iran from establishing itself as a nuclear power and in exchange for support of Irani citizens. The United States withdrew from the deal during Trump’s presidency. There are ongoing conversations regarding the deal, but there is currently no clear plan for the United States to rejoin.  

During Trump’s presidency, he was frequently and justifiably criticized for the inhumane treatment of people attempting to migrate into the United States, specifically from Central American countries. One of Biden’s promises was to create a way for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants to become legal citizens of the United States. Immediately after taking office, Biden unveiled a proposal, which was followed by more detailed proposals from House Democrats in March and February that would make it possible for these immigrants to safely become citizens. Although no legislation has passed yet, Biden and many members of Congress are continuing to draft legislation on the issue.  

Additionally, on Biden’s first day in office, he signed an executive order reversing Trump’s travel ban from dominantly Muslim countries. Biden also wrote that in January 2020 that he would “set our annual refugee admissions at 125,000,” and continue to increase that number each year. This promise has not been kept. In February of 2021, it was stated that the refugee cap would only be increased to 62,500 refugees, and on April 16th it was announced that the refugee cap would remain at 15,000 as it had been over the Trump presidency. The White house faced backlash for this and a modified number is set to be released in the coming weeks.  

Throughout his campaign, Biden promised to reverse the climate change rollbacks that occurred over the Trump presidency and set a more ambitious precedent for climate change legislation. While Biden’s administration has reversed some of the Trump-era setbacks, a definite plan for how to best handle climate change has not been finalized. Biden was successful in rejoining the Paris climate accord the day of his inauguration. Several drafted climate deals have circulated through congress, but none have been signed after 100 days of the Biden administration.

Finally, one of the most debated and focused-on issues in the past year has been reform in the criminal justice systems in the United States. The horrors of police brutality and the rate at which these crimes go unpunished or even unrecognized has astounded the public, especially since the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May of 2021. Before taking office, Biden announced that he aimed to launch the creation of a national police oversight commission, but on April 11th 2021, the administration announced that they would instead aim for congressional legislation. There was no substantive action regarding the American criminal justice system during the first 100 days of the Biden presidency, as he promised there would be. With the issue of police brutality being on the forefront of many Americans’ minds, it was essential for Biden’s campaign to state that he was in support of police reform, but the inaction in this area so far is something that the Biden administration must be held responsible for.

Many of Biden's earlier campaign promises were broken or pushed aside as the ongoing pandemic became the focus of the United States, and the greater world. With the pandemic affecting almost every aspect of the way our country operates, it took priority over many issues that were caused by the Trump administration or had been ongoing for years prior. Although many people are relieved to see a president as destructive as Donald Trump out of office, it is important that we, as a country, hold Joe Biden accountable for maintaining his campaign promises and creating a more equitable and sustainable country.