Joe Biden's post-presidency has been rough, to put it mildly.
Nearly nine months after Donald Trump reclaimed the White House, Biden is holed up in Wilmington, Delaware, grappling with a reality that must feel like political exile. He's dealing not just with the sting of losing power, but also the inability to sell access and enrich his family. Though he won’t admit to the latter.
The irony couldn’t be thicker. After years of attacking Trump and using the Justice Department in a desperate bid to put his successor behind bars, Biden now finds himself being told by his own advisers to stay quiet and act like a traditional ex-president. Most of the time, he does—keeping his mouth shut while Trump hits him with personal jabs and sharp policy criticism.
But the problem is bigger than that. Biden has enemies on both sides now, with many on the left attacking him for not dropping out off the 2024 race sooner, or for having sought reelection in the first place. On top of that, recent books have only made things worse, such as Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin, which exposed how his team scrambled to hide his cognitive struggles during his presidency.
Still, he keeps busy with the phone calls to individuals like Gavin Newsom, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Bernie Sanders. Robert Salladay, who advises Newsom, says the California governor and Biden share "a warm relationship." This week, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson stopped by the Wilmington house for a visit. Biden is clearly trying to stay relevant, keeping those political connections alive even as he becomes increasingly irrelevant.
But his team knows the score. Any time Biden steps into the spotlight, there's risk.
When Biden made high-profile appearances early in Trump’s tenure, including on “The View,” some Democrats worried that his reemergence would prevent the party from moving forward.
“I have a lot of respect for President Biden,” said Joel Benenson, a former pollster for the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns. “But any president has to face the realities of when their time has come and gone.”
Benenson added that the decision not to hold an open Democratic primary process in 2024 “put the party through a situation where we suffered because we didn’t have primaries for the election against Donald Trump. … That was the worst mistake the Democratic Party has made in years.” Others say it’s unclear whether Democrats would have won had Biden dropped out earlier.
Those close to him say the gregarious, highly social Biden misses being at the center of the action and has sought ways to stay connected with everyday Americans — the aspect of politics he relished most through his more than 50-year career.
What really stings is the silence from his own party. People close to Biden are frustrated that more Democrats haven't stepped up to defend him against Trump's relentless attacks. Instead, potential 2028 contenders are running the other way, eager to distance themselves from his legacy. Kamala Harris went the furthest, calling his decision to run for reelection "recklessness" in her ghostwriter’s recent book, 107 Days. She phoned him before it came out, but no one's saying how that conversation went. Biden took the hit quietly, telling people he wishes her well on her book tour even though the criticism clearly hurt.
Biden finally broke his silence when Trump started openly talking about the Biden autopen scandal.
Presidential historians say rough post-presidencies aren't new. Jimmy Carter and Lyndon Johnson both struggled after leaving office. But Biden's situation stands out because of his age, illness, and the fact he no longer has influence to sell to enrich his family.
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