January 9, 2024

While considering the bumbling joke that currently occupies the Bully Pulpit’s “America Last” policy, ponder what he wrote in 2019: “By nearly every measure, the credibility and influence of the United States in the world have diminished since President Barack Obama and I left office on January 20, 2017. President Donald Trump has belittled, undermined, and in some cases abandoned U.S. allies and partners. He has turned on our own… troops. He has emboldened our adversaries and squandered our leverage to contend with national security challenges from North Korea to Iran, from Syria to Afghanistan to Venezuela…”

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Ironic, isn’t it? Biden outlined exactly what his “America Last” policy would accomplish as he belittled Donald Trump.

When Donald Trump spoke about Joe Biden at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, in February 2021, he said, “In one month we have gone from America first to America last.”

This illustrates how bad U.S. conditions have become under Biden’s “America Last” policy: “In one of President Trump’s last weeks in office (Dec. 27–Jan. 2), the U.S. imported no crude oil from Saudi Arabia for the first time in 35 years, marking newfound American energy independence. Sadly, within days of taking office President Biden made it clear that he wants to abandon this independence and pursue an ‘America Last’ energy policy.”

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A National Review article in November 2021 reported that, “Biden’s approach to energy represents in microcosm his approach to the presidency in general.” There is absolutely nothing about Biden’s contradictory approach to energy that makes any sense. He wants the United States to reduce the production of fossil fuels, reduce the number of new pipelines in America, limit oil and gas drilling on federal land, and abandon the Trump administration’s mission to maximize fossil fuels production. He wants other countries, such as Venezuela, to produce more fossil fuels for American use. He even asked the Saudis to increase production, but got snubbed. He maintains that there actually isn’t a supply issue at all, but that oil companies all got together to gouge customers, an issue that the FTC must immediately investigate. He opposed new fracking, promised to ‘make sure it’s eliminated.’ He even appropriated Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal.”

Why did/does Biden behave in this manner? Because he was/is trying to please the whacko far-left base of his party which is opposed to oil production because it’s not ‘green.’ For Biden, pleasing environmentalists means putting America Last.

As if that wasn’t enough, Biden sold off  more than 40% of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in early 2022 to slow rising fuel prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. Biden has made the U.S. vulnerable to disruptions of global oil supplies, he has made the U.S. future unstable because of his energy policies at a time when Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel are creating fears of a wider war that will disrupt oil shipments from the Middle East. While not the first president to use the SPR, Biden sent nearly one million barrels of SPR oil to a CCP-owned company linked to his son Hunter.

His energy policy hasn’t gotten any better. Biden invoked the Defense Production Act (a Cold War-era law) to pour taxpayer funds into manufacturing of electric heat pumps, an alternative to gas-powered residential furnaces. His administration has also issued extensive new regulations aimed at gas-powered home appliances such as water heaters, stoves, and furnaces, which will lead to higher prices for consumers.

While visiting NATO headquarters in 2021, Biden said, “It’s overwhelmingly in the interest of the United States of America to have a great relationship with NATO and with the EU. I have a very different view than my predecessor did.”

Biden’s ‘very different view,’ unfortunately, was to place “America Last.” Biden’s botched 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan demonstrated his priorities, which were the result of his “America Last” policy in action. The tragedy in Afghanistan wasn’t an anomaly because his “America Last” policy continues. The Biden administration has given over $2.35 billion in taxpayer dollars to Afghanistan since the Taliban retook control. John Sopko, head of Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), has said the Biden administration is blocking his investigatory efforts by refusing to provide documents that could show if the Taliban is being propped up by American dollars. Further, the Taliban takeover has made uncertain the fate for Afghan women and girls, casting doubt over Biden’s repeated insistence that human rights are a cornerstone of his foreign policy.