On Jan. 20, Donald Trump will officially inherit a colossal mess almost beyond description — Humpty Dumpty has been shattered by the Biden administration. And it is hard to believe that President Trump can fix Biden’s mess in only four years. American power and influence seem at the nadir of their post-war existence, and regardless of passions about the new president, the country needs to get serious about self-improvement and global leadership.
1. Morale
The morale of the country is in the tank due to raging inflation and a sense that matters are out of control domestically and internationally, while political grandees in the meantime talk down to the country and force all things woke down the nation’s throat.
There is also the sense that Biden’s entourage and the complicit media covered up his obvious mental deterioration.
Further, some ridiculously strident members of the House, bent on impeding the cohesiveness needed for traction on major issues, have the ability to posture and stymie a tiny Republican majority. And it is no secret that there is a lack of confidence in institutions such as Congress, the Department of Justice and FBI, and the Supreme Court.
Moreover, violent crime and carjackings are a way of life in major cities, which, as so-called “sanctuaries,” have decided “not to use … resources to help federal agents identify, and deport, undocumented immigrants.”
2. Border Security
Assurances by Vice President Harris and Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas that “the border is secure” have been ludicrous, with such neglect of national security requiring what the English poet and philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge called a willing suspension of disbelief. In late September, the House Committee on Homeland Security estimated there are about 2 million known “gotaways” since the beginning of FY 2021. And, excluding the “gotaways,” the number of border encounters is more than triple those of the first Trump administration.
3. Inflation
Inflation that peaked at 9.1 percent in mid-2022 is now approaching 3 percent and here to stay for the foreseeable future, as is the current price level for goods thanks to what is known in economics as downward stickiness of pricing. (Even Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin regretted saying that inflation was “transitory.”) By one estimate, grocery prices are 22 percent higher since Biden’s inauguration.
A monetary stimulus that contributed to inflation, it is questionable whether Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, announced in early 2021, was actually needed on that scale.
Mysteriously, the quantitative easing (purchase of bonds) by the Federal Reserve should have already been halted when, by March of 2022, inflation hit 5.2 percent. While there are also global inflationary forces at work, Trump will need to address the cost of living at the grocery store and at the gas pump.
4. Defense and Foreign Policy
In defense and foreign policy, the U.S. has surrendered global influence to bad actors. Reports on the culture at the top of the Pentagon suggest that careerism and catering to elements of DEI are dominant — instead of a focus on addressing the current geometry of threats, particularly preparation for a conflict with China.
Immediate attention is needed to build a procurement and logistics chain that can sustain a major conflict. A current estimate in Defense One is that the Navy needs to build, on net, 10 ships a year for the next 35 years — yet due to aging, the Navy had a net loss of nine ships for fiscal 2025. China, in the meantime, has a shipbuilding capacity that dwarfs our own in stunning proportion.
5. The Middle East
The disgraceful and botched withdrawal from Afghanistan — ceding to the Taliban the Bagram Airfield and billions of dollars worth of military equipment — was an invitation to aggression for Russia and Iran who perceived a lack of American resolve.
Further, the Biden administration continued with President Obama’s appeasement of Iran, which through proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and militias in Syria and Iraq, was able to loom large in the Middle East, creating the so-called Axis of Resistance.
Today, Iran is known to be on the edge of possessing weapons-grade uranium. By the middle of 2024, its proxies, the Houthis, had caused nearly an 80 percent reduction in shipping traffic through the Red Sea. In the meantime, the U.S. response has been to defend and protect but with sporadic and limited retaliatory efforts.
In another act of weakness, in early 2023, the Biden administration allowed a Chinese surveillance balloon to traverse the entire country, including remote territory in Alaska, before finally shooting it down off the East Coast. (READ MORE: American Appeasement Emboldens Bad Actors
6. Energy Dominance
Another Biden legacy is the loss of leadership in world energy. Cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, termination of leases and mining permits, and stopping new LNG export infrastructure are symptomatic of a naivete that caters to progressives yet damages our energy security. And while the U.S. is restricting its energy exploration and production, Russia has used energy as a weapon against Europe.
China’s vaunted Belt and Road Initiative, established in 2013, is aimed in part at energy security for a country that has imported over 11 million barrels of oil per day, the largest oil importer in the world. Increased U.S. production over the long term should inhibit both Iran and Russia from amassing further hard currency reserves.
7. Ukraine
Finally, there is Biden’s legacy in Ukraine. While the Biden Administration did not correctly anticipate or deter the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it is admittedly difficult to deter a superpower with over 1,700 deployed nuclear warheads and over 1,500 tactical ones. A country that, believing in its own historical continuity, wants to retake what was once part of its empire. Nonetheless, there is no clear objective or disclosed endgame for NATO and the U.S., with premature use of the word “victory” unrealistic.
On the positive side of the ledger, presently 23 out of 32 NATO member nations are at or over the 2 percent of GDP requirement for defense, based on a NATO announcement using mid-2024 data. This achievement is due to intense pressure by Biden to continue with a policy that was started by Trump. Whether 2 percent is a realistic percentage given today’s array of threats is another matter. (READ MORE: What’s Wrong with Canada?)
Trump will need to prioritize this litany of inherited domestic and world problems created in large part by Biden and his coterie. As president, he will have strategic opportunities to end the Russia–Ukraine war and conflict in the Middle East, and bring Iran, weakened by the collapse of the al-Assad government in Syria, and by Israeli military prowess in the Levant and against Iran’s own air defense systems, into the international community again — and restore confidence in Americans that our borders are secure and that the country, a meritocracy, is on the right track with a sound economy.
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Frank Schell is a business strategy consultant and former senior vice president of the First National Bank of Chicago. He was a Lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, and is a contributor of opinion pieces to various journals.