| Part of thepresidency of Joe Biden and thesecond presidential transition of Donald Trump | |
President Joe Biden delivers his farewell address to the nation in the Oval Office of the White House. | |
| Date | January 15, 2025 (2025-01-15) |
|---|---|
| Time | 8:00 p.m.EST |
| Duration | 17 minutes |
| Location | Oval Office,White House Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Type | Speech |
| Participants | PresidentJoe Biden |
| Outcome | TheBiden administration ends and thesecond Trump administration begins at noon EST onJanuary 20, 2025. |
| Media | Video |
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Personal U.S. Senator from Delaware 47th Vice President of the United States Vice presidential campaigns 46th President of the United States Tenure   | ||
Joe Biden's farewell address was thefinal official speech ofJoe Biden as the 46thpresident of the United States, delivered in theOval Office on January 15, 2025.
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Biden served hissingle term as the 46th President of the United States, winning the2020 presidential election againstRepublican incumbent presidentDonald Trump. He wasinaugurated on January 20, 2021. However, Trump refused to accept his loss andattempted to overturn the election results. While in office, Biden signed theAmerican Rescue Plan Act,Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,CHIPS and Science Act, andInflation Reduction Act in response to theCOVID-19 pandemic andsubsequent recession. HeappointedKetanji Brown Jackson to theSupreme Court of the United States. Inhis foreign policy, the U.S. reentered theParis Agreement. Biden oversaw thecomplete withdrawal of U.S. troops that ended thewar in Afghanistan, leading tothe Taliban seizing control. Heresponded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposingsanctions on Russia and authorizingaid to Ukraine. During theGaza war, Biden condemned the actions ofHamas as terrorism, strongly supportedIsrael's military efforts, and sent limited humanitarian aid to theGaza Strip. A temporaryceasefire proposal he backed was adopted shortly before he left office. Democrats controlled both houses of Congress until Republicans won a slim majority in theHouse of Representatives in the2022 elections. Republicans took control of theSenate after the2024 elections.
Concerns about Biden's age and health persisted throughout his term. He became the first president to turn 80 while in office. He began his presidency with majority support, but saw his approval ratings decline significantly throughout his presidency, in part due to public frustration overinflation, which peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 but dropped to 2.9% by the end of his presidency. Biden initiallyran for reelection and, after theDemocratic primaries, he became the party's presumptive nominee in the2024 presidential election. After his poor performance in thefirst presidential debate, renewed scrutiny from across the political spectrum about his cognitive ability led him towithdraw from the race. Bidenimmediately endorsed Vice PresidentKamala Harris as his replacement. Harris subsequently became the Democratic nominee in the2024 Democratic National Convention withTim Walz asher running mate, but they subsequently lost the general election to Trump andJD Vance. Biden's administration isranked favorably by historians and scholars, diverging frompublic assessments of his tenure. He is theoldest living former U.S. president.
After Trump's victory, Biden and Trump met and commenced thepresidential transition. During the period of Trump's beingpresident-elect, he planned on having billionaires likeVivek Ramaswamy (before Ramaswamy's withdrawal) andElon Musk inhis second presidential administration. Once Trump wasinaugurated on January 20, 2025, the Democratic Party would lose control of the presidency in addition to falling short of a majority in the House and Senate. The party also had a minority of state legislature seats and governorships.
Biden began his speech at 8:00 p.m.EST from theOval Office.[1] Biden's wifeJill,[2] his sonHunter, Hunter's wifeMelissa, their son Beau, Biden's granddaughterFinnegan, and vice presidentKamala Harris and her husbandDoug Emhoff were present in the Oval Office during the speech.[3] He initially covered the history of the United States and described theStatue of Liberty as a representation of the U.S.[4] Biden claimed that anoligarchy was taking hold in the U.S.,[5][6] invokingDwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address, in which Eisenhower argued that themilitary–industrial complex was influencing the country; he criticized the "tech–industrial complex". He boasted of provisions to combatclimate change in theInflation Reduction Act.[7] Biden indirectly criticizedMeta Platforms's decision to end itsfact-checking program. He also wished the incoming Trump administration "great success".[8]
Biden popularized the expression "tech–industrial complex" in his farewell address.[9][10]
U.S. President Joe Biden used the term in his farewell address to the Nation on January 15, 2025:[9][10][11] The term alluded toDwight D. Eisenhower's warning of themilitary–industrial complex and whatPolitico described as "echoingRoosevelt's language in calling out the 'robber barons' of anew dystopian Gilded Age". SinceElon Musk purchasedTwitter, widespread allegations that the social media company has been manipulating itsalgorithm to promote right-wing content as well as to suppress left-wing content have been made. A Biden aide demurred when asked if Biden was referring toElon Musk, but said that the billionaire "was certainly an example of one".[12]
The comments came amid large financial donations by tech leaders toDonald Trump's second presidential inauguration and actions on the leaders' part seen[by whom?] as deferential to the president-elect. It also came amidst surging stock prices of "The Magnificent Seven", seven tech companies whose combined value rose 46% in 2024, vastly beating theS&P 500 share index.[13] Other tech leaders described as part of the tech–industrial complex includedMark Zuckerberg,Jeff Bezos,Satya Nadella,Sundar Pichai,Shou Zi Chew,Tim Cook, andVivek Ramaswamy.[13][12]
The Biden version of the Eisenhower warning is the "tech-industrial complex." He is warning of the erosion of truth itself, brought forth by unchecked social media platforms and artificial intelligence.
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