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US President Joe Biden has warned that an “oligarchy is taking shape in America” that risks undermining democracy, as he attacked a growing “tech industrial complex” for providing a dangerous concentration of wealth and power in the country.
Biden’s comments during a farewell address to Americans from the Oval Office on Wednesday night are a veiled attack on Donald Trump’s closest allies in corporate America, including tech billionaire Elon Musk, just five days before he transfer power to the republican.
Biden said he wanted to warn the country about the “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people” and the danger that “their abuse of power will be left unchecked.”
He cited the late president Dwight Eisenhower’s warning in his 1961 farewell address about a military-industrial complex and said the interaction between government and technology risked being just as damaging.
“I am equally concerned about the possible rise of a technological-industrial complex that could pose real risks for our country as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is being destroyed. Editors are disappearing. “Social media is giving up fact-checking,” Biden said.
Biden’s words were a reference to the world’s richest man, Musk, owner of social media platform X and founder of electric vehicle maker Tesla, who provided massive financial support to Trump’s campaign and has become one of his allies. tighter during the transition to the new Trump Administration.
Some of Silicon Valley’s top executives, from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, have also embraced Trump since his election victory and are expected to take center stage at the inauguration ceremony in Washington on Monday.
Biden also used his remarks to shine a positive light on his one-term presidency, which ended with the major political failure of abandoning his late re-election bid in late July, passing the flag to campaign against Trump Vice President Kamala. Harris – an attempt that ended in bitter defeat.
Biden’s approval ratings have fallen to new lows as he leaves the presidency and a political career in Washington that has spanned more than five decades. Only 36.7 percent of Americans approve of his job performance and 55.8 percent disapprove, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling average.
Biden said he hoped his achievements would be judged more favorably in the future.
“It will take time to feel the full impact of all we have done together, but the seeds have been planted, they will grow and flourish for decades to come,” he said.
Biden has not only faced numerous criticisms from Republicans, but also reproaches from Democrats who blame him for re-election despite his advanced age. He is now 82.
Biden’s presidency was defined by a record labor market and a strong recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as a series of legislative achievements on the economy. But the pain of high inflation became a major political vulnerability for him.
On foreign affairs, he took credit for Western support for Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, but his response to the Middle East conflict, including staunch support for Israel’s war in Gaza, drew a strong reaction from progressive Democrats. , undermining the unity of his political coalition.
Only on Wednesday, five days before he left office, was Biden – with the help of Trump aides – able to broker a ceasefire agreement for the release of hostages held by Hamas.
“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the next administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the next administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be, working together as Americans,” he said at the beginning of his speech.
