During his victory speech on Nov. 8, President Joe Biden promised to “make America respected around the world again.”
It’s only been eight months since Biden took office and he’s already proven that promise laughably false. He’s consistently put Americans last, abandoned our allies, and aided our enemies. Under his leadership, America is less feared and more vulnerable to threats foreign and domestic. Far from being respected, Biden has embarrassed the United States on the world stage.
Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal included relying on the Taliban to ensure safe evacuations for Americans and reportedly giving these terrorists the names of Americans and Afghan allies still in the country. In our haste to leave, our military was forced to abandon billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded military vehicles, weapons, and gear, much of which has been recovered by the Taliban. The Biden administration broke its promise to keep boots on the ground until every citizen was evacuated, leaving Americans behind. On top of all this, a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan that purportedly targeted ISIS-K terrorists instead killed 10 civilians, including a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group and seven children—a “mistake,” according to a military official.
Closer to home, Biden’s refusal to secure our border has created a humanitarian crisis in our southern states. Last month,208,887 illegal migrants were apprehended attempting to cross the southern border—the highest number for August in 21 years. It’s the second month in a row that encounters surpassed 200,000. The massive influx marks a 340 percent increase from the average number of August apprehensions during the Trump administration. Migrants camped out under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas in what law enforcement described as“third-world-like conditions.” Violence is breaking out, deadly drugs are flowing across the border, and human smuggling, abuse, and rape are thriving—not to mention the known or suspected terrorists walking into our country. Still, the president has not visited the border, and “border czar” Kamala Harris has avoided a trip to the epicenter of the crisis.
As if things weren’t bad enough, Biden has managed to offend France—our oldest ally—so much that it recalled its ambassador to America for the first time ever. Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats caved to the radical wing of their party and moved to strip funding from a bill for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, which has long enjoyed bipartisan support. The move prompted a rebuke from the Israeli ambassador. When the Cuban people rallied against the communist Castro regime this summer and took to the streets holdingAmerican flags, the Biden administration largely ignored them, claiming the uprising was about COVID-19 and telling Cubans not to seek asylum in America. And while we turn our backs on our friends, we handed our geopolitical enemies a win: Biden gifted Vladimir Putin the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, allowing Russia to bypass Ukraine and cutting it off from the rest of Western Europe.
The past few months have made one thing abundantly clear: when America is weak, the world is worse for it. Twenty years after the attacks of Sept. 11, the Taliban controls more territory than it did in 2001, is equipped with the best arsenal in the world, and enjoys a ready ally in China. Our borders are open, endangering Americans and migrants alike. Our allies wonder whether we can be relied upon. Worst of all, we’ve been humiliated and given our enemies reason to question our resolve. Only time will tell when they decide to test it.
If this is what Biden meant by making America “respected” again, he needs a new definition.