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Alongside being a braggart and a liar, Donald Trump attempted to stage a coup. While both of these statements hold true, it is also important to acknowledge that Trump’s presidency brought significant shifts in US foreign and domestic policy, which Joe Biden has continued to build upon. These shifts are likely to have a lasting impact, regardless of Trump’s legal situation.
What distinguishes a truly historic presidency? Ultimately, it requires a radical departure from the past, with the consequences and underlying principles eventually accepted and absorbed by political opponents. Examples include Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, Lyndon Johnson’s Civil Rights Act, and Ronald Reagan’s deregulatory, tax-cutting policies commonly known as neoliberalism.
In the years following Reagan’s presidency, subsequent presidents embraced the free-market ideology that he had established. Bill Clinton pushed for the North American Free Trade Agreement, George W Bush welcomed China into the World Trade Organization, and the Obama administration pursued a bilateral investment treaty with China and agreed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
However, Trump rejected the pro-globalization consensus that had been in place for the previous four decades. During his campaign, he accused China of mocking and harming the US. In his inaugural address, he lamented the effects of globalization on America. His actions included withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, obstructing the appointment of new judges to the WTO’s appellate court, imposing tariffs on China, and renegotiating NAFTA as the USMCA. All of these measures were aimed at bringing industrial jobs back to the US.
The rivalry with China also took on a geopolitical dimension. The Trump administration’s national security strategy centered around great-power competition with China and Russia.
So, what has Biden done with these unconventional policies? Rather than dismissing them outright, his administration has largely retained them and even expanded upon them. They have not sought to rejoin the TPP and have continued to block the WTO’s appellate court. Some administration officials privately admit that allowing China to join the WTO was a mistake. Trump’s tariffs on China remain in place.
Biden’s administration has also embraced the concept of great-power rivalry with China, seeing it as the most significant geopolitical challenge for America. His economic policies, known as “Bidenomics,” share a desire to revitalize American industry and rebuild the middle class, similar to Trump’s motivations.
The Biden team may argue that their policies are more systematic and contain new elements compared to the Trump administration. Their focus on clean energy and combating climate change aligns with Democratic values. Additionally, Biden’s efforts to contain Chinese power are more consistent and less susceptible to unpredictable changes in presidential behavior.
However, these differences largely pertain to implementation rather than underlying philosophy. Reluctantly, the Biden team has come to share many of Trump’s fundamental assumptions about trade, globalization, and China.
This reassessment has been driven by two factors. Firstly, Trump’s victory in 2016 compelled Democrats to take the concerns and frustrations of American workers more seriously. The Biden administration acknowledges that they can no longer sell globalization to the American people without addressing the economic factors that fueled Trumpism. Failing to do so could endanger democracy itself. Consequently, Biden’s team has moved away from the free-trade principles embraced by Bill Clinton’s “New Democrats” in the 1990s.
Secondly, the Biden administration shares Trump’s belief that the past 40 years of US policy towards China have been ineffective and that a China led by the Communist party cannot be a responsible stakeholder in the international system.
Therefore, it is undeniable that Trump brought about a lasting revolution in US foreign and domestic policy, even if his legacy will always be colored by his assault on American democracy. Perhaps it took a non-conforming figure like Trump to catalyze a profound departure from a 40-year-old consensus on trade, globalization, and China.
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