By Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden ended a half-century political career on Wednesday with a final speech in the Oval Office as he hopes to seal a legacy overshadowed by Democrats’ failure to stop Donald Trump in return to the White House.

Biden opened his speech with a familiar message – asking Americans to come together – but quickly warned about a dangerous concentration of wealth in the United States.

“Our system of separation of powers, checks and balances may not be perfect, but it has sustained our democracy for almost 250 years, longer than any country in history that has attempted such a bold experiment,” he said. Biden.

But he warned of a “tech industrial complex” that brings an “avalanche of false information and disinformation, which enables the abuse of power.” The free press, he added, “collapsed.”

Biden handed over power to Trump at noon (1700 GMT) on Monday. Trump enlisted billionaire Elon Musk, who helped his election efforts, as a special adviser charged with cutting costs from the federal government.

The ominous speech comes as Biden’s Democratic Party has little leverage in national politics and Trump has chosen a slate of cabinet members who have promised to upend traditional American alliances and governance norms.

Biden ran for president in 2020 as a transition figure, but chose at the unprecedented age of 80 to run for reelection, convinced that he was the only Democrat who could defeat Trump.

Forced out of the race in July after a disastrous debate against Trump, Biden was blamed by some Democrats for their slaughter in November, after Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign lost every battleground state.

Biden and his allies have managed the recovery from COVID-19, funded an infrastructure overhaul, sparked new manufacturing of semiconductor chips, and tackled climate change as they try to balance the inequality and invest in the future. He left behind a better US economy and promising businesses.

But Biden has not been able to heal the country’s divisions the way he had hoped, or stop the democratic retreat around the world. His crowning political achievement — defeating Trump in 2020 — proved temporary. Now the Republican president-elect has promised to undo much of what the Democratic administration has accomplished.

“All Joe Biden wants is to remember the many things he’s done for this country and, at least in the short term, they’ve been overshadowed by his bad decision to run,” said David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.

“He became a historic president when he defeated Trump. So it is clear that the fact that Trump has risen and returned to power, more powerful than when he left, is an unhappy coda to the story.”

Biden addressed what he described as an ongoing threat to the country in a letter released early Wednesday by the White House.

“I’m running for president because I believe the soul of America is at stake. The very nature of who we are is at stake. And, that’s still the case,” he said, urging Americans to continue fighting for of the country’s focus on equality. , life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A White House official said the legacies are set for the long term.

“In historical terms, it’s been a millisecond since the election. This president has locked down the most important legislative record since LBJ (President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s), and the irreversible benefits of those law will grow for many decades,” said the official.

Senator Chris Coons, a longtime ally, said Biden faces an economic crisis, a public health crisis, and a democratic crisis after Jan. 6, 2021, attacking the Capital of Trump’s supporters when he took office that year.

“The country is in the depths of crises. The recovery from the pandemic is his greatest achievement,” said Coons.

The Biden administration is overseeing the distribution of COVID vaccines and an economic recovery that defies predictions of a recession, even as inflation rises and prices remain high, which angered the electorate over his management of the economy.

Republicans have seized on the public’s frustration with last year’s election, fueling anger over high rates on accusations of Democrat elitism and disconnection from working-class voters, while blaming immigrants for high price, despite the lack of evidence.

“You can’t reverse four and a half decades of rising inequality with a few years of absolutely positive economic outcomes and policy changes,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute. “But one of the most fundamental things they do is provide relief on the scale needed to create a strong recovery in jobs.”

AFGHANISTAN, ISRAEL

Biden, who spent more than three decades in the US Senate and eight years as Obama’s vice president before his four years as president, cited the West’s unified response to Russia’s war with Ukraine, the strengthening alliances and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan as key. foreign policy successes.

However, 13 US soldiers died during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, and Biden’s popularity never recovered.

His strong support for Israel, which has killed thousands of Palestinians in response to deadly attacks by the militant group Hamas in Israel, has divided the Democratic Party, and Biden’s reputation has not hurt.

Vincent Rigby, a former senior national security adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said Biden will always be remembered as an “interlude” president despite his strong achievements in rebuilding trust. in the United States after Trump’s first term.

“We’ll see how history treats him five, 10, 15 years from now, but we’ll see him as president between two Trump presidencies. He held the line, but Trump is back.