Biden Back on St. Croix

M.A. Dworkin

St. Croix - President Joe Biden recently arrived back on his island home of St. Croix, USVI. His arrival brings to mind the tough and turbulent world of U.S. politics. It’s a common tactic in all politics, or shall we say “all dirty politics” for the incoming administration to blame everything that is going wrong with their policies on the previous administration. It’s so easy to say: that incompetent so-and-so has screwed everything up while he was in office, and thank goodness you elected me because my administration is here to fix it all. Sound familiar? 

When uttered in the mildest of knee-jerk reactions, it’s almost easy for the general public to accept it as an explanation, or as a scapegoat, as to how screwed up and dismal things can get, both economically and diplomatically. But the Trump Administration, more specifically, President Donald Trump, does not utter criticism in mild terms. He huffs, he puffs, he looks to blow his enemies house down. Such has been his tactic when it comes to dealing with the term of office of his predecessor, ex-U.S. President Joseph Biden. Trump has not just decided to criticize the man and his policies during his four years in the Oval Office, he has decided to eviscerate the man, gut him like a fish, to the amusement of his MAGA following. 

In a break from tradition, Trump has decorated a White House walkway, the East Wing Colonnade, (certainly not the East Wing itself which he unceremoniously tore down for his $300 million grand ballroom) with bronze plaques for each U.S. President. In an even sharper break with tradition, the plaques were written in a style echoing Trump’s Truth Social media posts, which the White House states was penned by the President himself, and which he has dubbed the “Presidential Walk of Fame.” By all objective accounts, it is filled with misleading or false descriptions of recent Democratic Presidents and refers to them in an overtly political way.

Under Joe Biden’s plaque, which does not carry a picture of the ex-President but his signature written by Presidential Autopen, the plaque includes claims such as “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History,” adding that he took office “as a result of the most corrupt election ever seen in the United States” and that “Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our nation to the brink of destruction.”

Trump also goes on, as per the plaque, to attack Biden for his economic record, his climate, immigration and foreign policies, including the Afghanistan withdrawal, calling it “among the most humiliating events in American history.” He also states that because of Biden’s “weakness,” Russia invaded Ukraine, and “Hamas terrorists launched the heinous October 7th attack on Israel.” The plaque also cites what Trump calls Biden’s “severe mental decline, and his unprecedented use of the Autopen.”

So much for allowing the man to have a gracious exit after 50 years in politics and service to his country. 

Trump also attacked ex-President Barack Obama with a description under his plaque that reads: “Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, a community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History.” Obama’s plaque ends with an unproven claim that “he spied on the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump, and presided over the creation of the Russia, Russia Hoax, the worst political scandal in American History.”

Neither Biden nor Obama have made any public comment about the plaques. But it does bring to mind a tweaking of the quote by the famous American Author Mark Twain: “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Nevertheless, despite all the school-yard antics and name-calling that has recently been foisted on Mr. Biden, we certainly welcome you with open arms and hearts to St. Croix. This is a place where, for many years, you have apparently enjoyed a break and respite from the rigours of public office, a place where you can sit back and stare out at the beautiful Caribbean Sea and think of all the grand moments and accomplishments of your esteemed career. 

Rest assured, Crucians, along with your devoted followers in the States and around the World, will always think of you in the fondest of terms, a man who lived with dignity and honor, a man, who like all men is not perfect, but who fought what he saw as the good fight, as an influential politician for over half-a-century in public office. Hats tossed in the air to you, President Biden, you have graduated the School of Life with honors!