President Joe Biden's third year in the White House is coming to a close, and while the president did achieve a few feats to hang his hat on, he faced a number of problems that could end up handing the 2024 presidency to former President Donald Trump.
From inflation to the crisis at the southern border, here are Biden's biggest wins and losses of 2023.
BIDEN SIGNS $886.3 BILLION DEFENSE POLICY BILL INTO LAW
INFLATION STARTS TO EASE
Biden's initial reelection pitch took a page out of former Bill Clinton campaign guru James Carville's playbook: It's the economy, stupid.
The president formally launched his 2024 campaign in April and focused it almost entirely on Bidenomics, the summation of his economic principles.
There was only one problem: Spurred by inflation, voters overwhelmingly disapproved of Biden's own economic stewardship, despite his presiding over a historically strong labor market.
Still, in recent months, inflation has begun to ease slowly, and the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge ticked down to 2.6% in November. That tracks above the Fed's targeted 2% annual rate and below levels seen during the majority of Biden's time in office. Meanwhile, consumer sentiment continues to increase, and the White House has predicted that Biden's economic polling will follow as more of the president's legislation is implemented and households begin to reap the rewards.
POLLS DON'T TELL THE WHOLE STORY, BUT...
Biden will end the year with the lowest approval rating of any president at this point in his first term, dating back to Jimmy Carter.
The president's overall approval rating has been low since the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Biden will head into 2024 with his favorability numbers more than 15 points underwater, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average. Furthermore, Biden's approval numbers among young voters, including those within the Democratic Party, are declining over his handling of the situation at the southern border, student loan debt relief, and Israel's war in Gaza.
In contrast, Trump, Biden's likely opponent in the 2024 general election, has seen his stock climb despite 91 felony charges, and he and Biden are virtually tied in the eyes of the public, at least in terms of favorability.
Biden, White House officials, and national Democrats, on the other hand, say approval ratings are not an accurate gauge of voters' true feelings, and there is recent anecdotal evidence to back that notion.
Democrats overperformed expectations in both the 2022 midterm and 2023 off-year elections, and Biden hopes to continue that trend into next year's general.
THE 2022 AND 2023 ELECTIONS
The Supreme Court's 2022 decision striking down federal abortion rights turned out to be a gift for Biden and Democrats over the past two elections.
Driven in large part by state and local Republican efforts to pass additional abortion restrictions in the wake of Dobbs, voters turned out in droves to help Democrats maintain control of the Senate and minimize losses in the House in 2022.
That same effect carried over to 2023's off-year elections, when voters added abortion rights to Ohio's state constitution and helped Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) fend off an abortion-rights challenger who had vowed to ban abortions outright.
Meanwhile, Democrats maintained control of the Virginia legislature, blocking Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) from pursuing his 15-week abortion ban.
Activist groups in Arizona, Florida, Nevada, and other states have openly stated their desire to place abortion rights initiatives on ballots in 2024, and Democratic operatives believe the matter could help drive turnout for Biden in the general election, despite his widespread unpopularity.
DISORDER AT THE BORDER
If you ask the White House, Biden prioritized fixing the broken immigration system on his first day in office.
If you ask people living in the Southwest, he's done the opposite.
Illegal border crossings have skyrocketed during Biden's time in office, and even some border state Democrats are actively calling out the president's policies pertaining to the southern border.
The massive surge in border crossings has not only soured Biden's polling, it also has hampered his ability to aid international allies, as Republicans in Congress are seeking to tie future security aid for Ukraine directly to substantive changes in immigration and border policy.
Republicans have rejected approving Biden's supplemental request seeking additional aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan unless it contains substantial border policy changes. Without approval, the White House has warned it will not be able to continue providing uninterrupted support to Ukraine in its war against Russia.
CLASHES WITH CONGRESS
The Republican majority in the House has made Biden's life difficult since taking over after the 2022 midterm elections.
Those efforts include targeted investigations of his son Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings and the formal authorization of an impeachment inquiry earlier this month.
Biden was able to negotiate a federal spending agreement with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over the summer, avoiding a costly federal default in the process.
However, McCarthy eventually was booted from his post by his fellow Republicans and replaced by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), who has proven less than amenable to working with the White House on its top spending priorities.
SPENDING SHOWDOWNS
Biden's fiscal negotiations over the next year with Johnson could prove fruitless, but the president secured two decisive spending victories in 2023.
The first came over the summer, lifting the debt ceiling through 2025 and guaranteeing Biden will not need to worry about a future federal default. Though McCarthy celebrated the agreement as a first step toward limiting overall government spending and reducing the deficit, the White House noted that non-defense spending levels would not be reduced in the immediate future, as sought by Republicans.
Biden's second spending win came much more recently and directly led to McCarthy's ouster. In the agreement, which the former speaker advanced through the lower chamber with the aid of Democrats, Biden secured a $16 billion supplemental request for disaster relief.
THE WARS IN GAZA AND UKRAINE
There is a good chance that situations overseas could make or break the election for Biden.
For the past two-plus years, the U.S. has been the top supporter of Ukraine in its efforts to repel its Russian invaders, yet the Biden administration has exhausted multiple congressional appropriations packages and no longer will be able to send Ukraine uninterrupted security support in the new year.
Furthermore, Israel's military campaign in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, and more specifically Biden's support for those military actions, has splintered the Democratic Party.
Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's relationship spans decades, so it comes as no surprise that the president backed Netanyahu's efforts to root Hamas and other Islamic terrorists out of Gaza.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
However, sweeping demonstrations by young voters in cities across the nation, coupled with rapidly declining support for the president among Arab and Muslim Americans in battleground states, prompted the president to begin backing off his support for Netanyahu's campaign in recent weeks.
It is highly unlikely that either war will end before voters head to the polls in November of next year, forcing Biden to consider shifting U.S. policy or risk losing his reelection bid.