Biden Is Leaving Trump A Better Situation Than Trump Left Him.

All Things Considered, Biden Is Handing Trump A Strong Economy.

Jan 12, 2025

Joe Biden, 46th President Of The United States.

JD Vance recently went on Fox News Sunday and claimed that Joe Biden was leaving the incoming Trump Administration a “dumpster fire.” Something many began to question as, Joe Biden wasn’t particularly handed the best situation, and it seems we are in a much better place now than in 2020.

So I thought it merited a look. We will analyze the situation handed to Joe Biden, the situation he is handing to Donald Trump, and decide not only who was handed a better situation but if either qualify as a “dumpster fire.”

The Joe Biden Situation.

Spoiler alert, but I think it would be hard to make the case Joe Biden was handed anything but a “dumpster fire.” We were in the midst of COVID, with the economy flat on its back and misinformation swirling about the pandemic, it’s not the ideal situation to say the least.

But alas, for those who may not remember, and for those who may want to misrepresent it, lets analyze what exactly Joe Biden was handed.

First, we had the first loss of jobs since Herbert Hoover. Donald Trump losing over 2.7 million jobs during the COVID epidemic, none of which had rebounded by the time Joe Biden took office. Important to note that even pre-COVID Trump largely under performed his predecessor in job creation. Unemployment rate spiked to almost 15% in 2020, and was setting above 6% when Biden took office.

Oil prices went negative in 2020, due to the crash in demand. However, something not talked about enough is Trump cutting the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), directly prior to COVID affected the ability to recover from this without gas prices shooting up. This is largely seen as a hand out to his Big Oil donors.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which gauges inflation saw the largest single year increase since 2008(a recession) under Trump in 2020. This can be attributed to the shocks in the supply chain, along with increased demand from massive government spending under Trump.

GDP in the year 2020 went negative, marking the single worse GDP year for America since World War II. Even excluding the COVID year however shows Trumps average GDP growth at 2.67%, far short of the 6% growth he promised.

Even the border, which Trump loves to tout as a major success of his administration, was a dumpster fire when handed to Biden. Made worse by Republicans blocking border legislation Biden attempted to pass his first week.

Crossings first spiked to almost 1 million in 2019, where Trump touted a higher catch and release rate than Biden ever would during his 4 years. Then as seen in the below graph, border crossings began spiking again toward the end of 2020. Showing Trump never secured the border, but instead was saved by COVID from having the issues highlighting under mind.

Crime also saw a massive spike in Trump’s final year. Seeing homicide rates rise at a historic rate of almost 30%. The totality of violent crime was up almost 6% for that year alone.

Daily cases for COVID was at almost 1 million, with the deaths over 300,000. All the while misinformation about the vaccine and the virus was being spread across social media.

So Joe Biden was handed a collapsed economy in the midst of a pandemic where a sizable chunk of the population also thought it was all a hoax. With over 6% unemployment, negative GDP, job loss, collapsed wages and growing debt and inflation numbers, he was thrust into a position to change course for America.

So, how did he do?

The Donald Trump Situation.

So, knowing the poor situation Biden was handed by Donald Trump, the question hinges on the quality of the situation being given to Trump. Which at least at first glance, feels better as we’re not in the midst of a pandemic. But let’s do our due diligence all the same.

Like we did for Biden, lets start with the job numbers Trump is being handed. Joe Biden has created a total of 16.6 million jobs, or 13.9 million new jobs if we subtract the 2.7 million lost under Trump that were rebounded. For his last month Biden created over 250,000 jobs leaving unemployment at 4.1%.

This is the lowest unemployment rate for an incoming president in decades, with strong consistent monthly job growth as well.

While inflation was undoubtedly an issue throughout Biden’s presidency, spiking close to 9%, he is handing Trump a CPI under 3%, which is the Feds target for economic growth.

GDP in 2024 grew over 3%, a target Trump wasn’t able to reach, and above what is considered normal for a developed country. GDP growth was consistently above 3% throughout Biden’s presidency and remains solid as it gets handed to Trump.

While work still needs to be done, wages are both at an all-time high and have been outpacing inflation since 2022. Mixed with job and employment numbers, this shows all indications of a very strong labor market.

COVID has been handled as an epidemic, due in part to both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. With “Operation Warp Speed” under Trump and Biden’s continued efforts to roll out the vaccine to be as accessible as possible.

Even the border numbers are down, which seemed to be Trump’s biggest point of contention on the campaign trail. Despite Biden quietly bringing down border numbers to lower than that of when he took office. Actually, his border crossings rivaled numbers Trump saw in 2018.

What About Abroad?

Both presidents were handed difficult conflicts abroad at different levels of escalation that they were asked to deal with, to varying levels of success.

Components of MAGA will claim Biden has left “the world on fire” in the current conflicts going on, despite it not being that different than what transpired under Trump. It largely boils down to a semantic battle of what we consider “war.”

For instance, the official “war” between Russia and Ukraine began under Joe Biden. This is something Republicans try to attribute to being caused by Biden. However, the conflict predates both Trump and Biden, starting instead in 2014 with Russia’s invasion into Crimea. This is also what Ukraine considers the start of the war, so why would we only accept Russia’s framing of it starting more recently?

Also, it’s not like fighting in the region stopped. Under Trump there were constant attacks in the Donbas, various conflicts, and boiled over tensions. If anything, Biden enabling Ukraine with weaponry that they have successfully used to push back against Russia, puts them in a far less threatening and leveraged position as they were under Trump.

The same is similar in the middle east. Conflicts have raged on for decades and it was no different under Trump or Biden. Tensions have undoubtedly reached new heights under Biden, though with little to do with him, but this does not absolve Trump either.

Palestinians had their deadliest day in history, prior to the ongoing genocide, under Donald Trump during the March of Return. Trump also escalated tensions by leaving Palestinians out of the Abraham Accords and by moving the US embassy in Israeli to illegally annexed land.

So why objective the conflict reached a new height under Biden, an argument could be made that Biden was handed the worse situation. As Hamas was still in power and tensions were rising, where now Hamas is rendered almost completely ineffective.

Lastly, Biden was handed the Afghanistan issue, despite Trump promising to end it. One made worse by a sloppy agreement signed by Trump, the DOHA agreements. Which freed terrorists in the region, lowered our troop numbers, and left equipment behind. Where Biden had to navigate through this and get our troops home.

While not perfect, though more of the blame rightfully should be placed on Trump’s DOHA agreements, Biden was able to end a conflict presidents have promised to end since it started. Leaving Trump with one less conflict to deal with.

Who Got The “Dumpster Fire?”

So by most accounts, it seems Joe Biden was handed an absolutely devastated economy. With all indicators flat on their back, just coming out of a recession, with it predicted another one would come soon. Joe Biden steered us out of this, avoided a recession altogether, and is leaving office with mostly positive metrics.

Donald Trump on the other hand is being handed an economy by all metrics is booming, at least on the macro level, where the biggest issue will be grocery prices from the effects left over by inflation. While not perfect, I think this is much preferable to the situation Joe Biden faced when he took office.

Even comparing situations abroad, its hard to make an argument that Trump’s situation is worse, or at least bad enough to negate the better domestic situation. Thus it seems rather obvious to me.

Joe Biden was handed a “dumper fire” as JD Vance would put it, and Donald Trump is being handed a much better performing economy, and all around decent situation.