US President Joe Biden on Wednesday urged Americans to stand guard against a “dangerous” oligarchy forming under US president-elect Donald Trump as he delivered a dark farewell address before stepping down next week.
In a primetime speech from the Oval Office at the end of his single term in office, he warned of an ultra-wealthy “tech industrial complex” that he said could gain unchecked power over the American public.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” the 82-year-old Democrat said.
Photo: EPA-EFE/MANDEL
Biden began his speech by touting the legacy of his four years in office, saying it might take time to feel the benefits, but that the “seeds were planted” for Americans in the future.
However, he soon turned to painting a series of dangers that he said were facing the US, which clearly referred to billionaire Trump’s close ties to the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and other tech tycoons.
Biden warned there was a “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people” with “dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.”
He also lashed out at social media firms, saying Musk has turned X into a right-wing megaphone and that Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, in a bid to court Trump, has ended fact-checking operations in the US.
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation,” Biden said.
“The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit,” he added.
He recalled a stark warning issued by then-president Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell address in 1961 about the dangers of an out-of-control military industrial complex.
“I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex,” he said.
With Trump planning to roll back US commitments to reduce global warming, Biden further warned that “powerful forces” threatened his climate achievements.
He also cautioned about the rise of artificial intelligence, saying that the US must take the lead over China on the transformative technology.
Biden finished by sounding a valedictory tone at the end of a 50-year political career that has seen the former senator mount several failed presidential bids before becoming former US president Barack Obama’s vice president, and finally rising to the top himself.
“It’s been the highest honor of my life to lead you as commander-in-chief,” said Biden.
Signing off as Trump returns for a second term on Monday, Biden told Americans: “Now it’s your turn to stand guard.”
Polls show Biden is an unpopular president. A CNN poll published on Wednesday showed him with a 36 percent approval rating, remaining at the lowest of his term.
That puts him above Trump, who left office with a 34 percent approval rating, according to the American Presidency Project.
The lowest approval rating for a president in recent times was Richard Nixon with 24 percent while the highest was Bill Clinton with 66 percent, followed by Barack Obama with 59 percent.”
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