There was a sting in the tail. Joe Biden’s farewell address had not seemed like a must-watch for most politics-weary Americans. Those who did dutifully tune in might have been expecting the president to deliver a yawn-inducing first draft of his White House memoir.
But after more than half a century in elected office, the 82-year-old great-grandfather had one last surprise. The primetime speech did not mention Donald Trump by name. Instead it will be remembered for its dark, ominous warning about something wider and deeper of which Trump is a symptom.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said.
The word “oligarchy” comes from the Greek words meaning rule (arche) by the few (oligos). Some have argued that the dominant political divide in America is no longer between left and right, but between democracy and oligarchy, as power becomes concentrated in the hands of a few. The wealthiest 1% of Americans now has more wealth than the bottom 90% combined.
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Related: Joe Biden warns ‘oligarchy is taking shape in America’ in farewell address
The trend did not start with Trump but he is set to accelerate it. The self-styled working-class hero has has picked the richest cabinet in history, including 13 billionaires, surrounding himself with the very elite he claims to oppose. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has become a key adviser. Tech titans Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg – collectively worth a trillion dollars – will be sitting at his inauguration on Monday.
Invoking former president Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address in January 1961 that warned against the rise of a military-industrial complex, Biden said: “Six decades later, I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex. It could pose real dangers for our country as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power.”
In an acknowledgement of news deserts and layoffs at venerable institutions such as the Washington Post, Biden added starkly: “The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. Truth is smothered by lies, told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable, to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.”
Zuckerberg’s recent decision to abandon factcheckers on Facebook, and Musk’s weaponisation of X in favour of far-right movements including Maga, was surely uppermost in Biden’s mind. Trust in the old media is breaking down as people turn to a fragmented new ecosystem. It has all happened with disorienting speed.
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Wearing dark suit, white shirt and blue tie, at times pointing a finger or raising a fist, Biden was speaking for the last time from the Oval Office. To his left, off camera, sat Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Vice-President Kamala Harris, First Lady Jill Biden, his son Hunter Biden and Hunter’s wife Melissa Cohen Biden. Behind the president were two flags, gold curtains and some framed family photos, including his late son Beau. Less than a week from now Biden will be gone and the photos swept away.
He leaves office with one of the strongest economies and lowest approval ratings of any president. His first two years were measured in trillions of dollars: pandemic aid that temporarily halved child poverty, a bipartisan infrastructure package, legislation to build factories and make computer chips and the most significant climate investment in history.
But somehow the president failed to communicate these achievements to voters or get credit from them. He was too shy to put his name on cheques, as Trump had done. The long list of legislative wins was eclipsed by inflation in millions of voters’ minds.
As expected, he did use some of his remarks on Wednesday to correct that record and make his case to future historians. “It will take time to feel the impact of all we’ve done together, but the seeds are planted and they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come.” There was an echo of a lyric in the musical Hamilton: “Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.”
But Biden’s legacy will also be that of a man who saved the nation from Trump only to cling on too long and open the door to Trump’s return. His policies were sound, and often celebrated by the left, but his politics were off. Wisely on Wednesday he did not air grievances or betray bitterness about the Democratic party’s collective decision to force him to not seek re-election. He has recently claimed that he could have beaten Trump. In his dreams.
Instead he brought down the curtain on a career that began with election to the US Senate in 1972 by looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past. Biden’s farewell address was above all an alarm call: like the “robber barons” of the gilded age, the oligarchy is making a comeback and even Trump will be a footnote.
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