Joe Biden faces these challenges as president – VG

On Saturday it became clear that Joe Biden (77) was announced as the next president of the United States. But with victory also comes an extensive cleanup effort.

When Biden is apparently sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, he will assume control of a country that is described as “deeply divided” and which faces great challenges, according to experts VG has spoken with.

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These are the main challenges that the experts point to:

Coronapandemien

Like much of Europe, the United States has been hit hard by the corona pandemic. In the last week alone, the country has broken its own infection record four days in a row.

On Saturday, the country registered more than 127,000 new cases of infection in one day, which is the highest number so far, according to figures from the John Hopkins Institute. Infections are particularly high in the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

So far, nearly 10 million people have been infected with the virus in the US, and more than 230,000 have lost their lives as a result of the corona, according to VG’s summary.

Current President Donald Trump has faced strong criticism for his handling of the pandemic.

– Joe Biden and many others have given an exaggerated impression of how much the president and the White House can do, since much of what is implemented is at the state level, Minerva writer Jan Arild Snoen tells VG.

He believes that the most important task for Biden going forward will be to manage the pandemic and achieve a better coordinated effort in this area.

Erik Mustad, Senior Lecturer at the University of Agder (UiA), also shares the same opinion.

– Overcoming the violent spread of infection and introducing European infection control measures will be the big political problem, he says.

The new president has announced that on Monday he will appoint a working group that will be in charge of dealing with the escalating crisis in the crown.

According to CNN, the task force will be led by former US public health chief Vivek Murthy, former FDA chief David Kessler and Marcella Nunez-Smith from Yale University.

In other words, fighting the pandemic is high on Biden’s agenda, something he also repeated in his victory speech on Saturday night US time.

Economy and unemployment

The economic knock-on effects of the crown pandemic will also challenge the incoming president, experts say.

Several thousand Americans have lost their jobs during the pandemic, and the number of unemployed in the United States is described as historically high.

An October poll found that eight million more Americans consider themselves poor now than just six months ago.

– The economy will always be the most important thing. Before the pandemic, many felt they were on the right track and unemployment was declining, Mustad says.

– Biden must ensure that as many people as possible enter work and education, says the keynote speaker.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly created confusion about crisis aid. In October, he canceled negotiations with Democrats on a new crown crisis package. Instead, it said it would provide its own crisis package after the November 3 elections.

Later, he turned around and asked his fellow party members to resume negotiations. So far, Congress has failed to agree on an economic crisis package.

– That they have not been able to present new packages of measures is a great challenge. It may well be that Biden is trying to play a role in reaching an agreement in Congress that allocates the money, even if it is not officially installed, says Snoen.

Democrats have also failed to win as many Senate seats as the party hoped.

In Georgia, neither candidate achieved 50 percent support, meaning there will be a re-election between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff in January, Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and Democratic challenger Ralph Warnock.

– If it turns out, as I believe, that Republicans have the majority in the Senate, then clear limits will be set on what Biden and the Democrats can implement, Snoen says.

International cooperation

Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement and threatened to withdraw the country from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Joe Biden has announced that he will repair relations with America’s allies and rebuild international agreements that Trump has criticized or threatened to remove from the United States.

– A China growing in both power and ambitions will also remain a major challenge for the United States, Snoen believes.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated significantly in recent years. The conflict between the great powers began in earnest in 2018 when Donald Trump dramatically increased tariffs on various Chinese goods. China responded by raising tariffs on US products.

– Trump has chosen to confront each other in the wrong place, that is, through the trade war, which goes beyond American consumers, says Snoen.

Joe Biden himself has stated that he will move away from unilateral tariffs targeting China and instead hold the country accountable to an international coalition that China “cannot afford to ignore,” according to NTB.

– It must restore America’s reputation in the international political arena, both in its relations with the EU and with China, and demonstrate that the United States is an ally and not an enemy, says Mustad.

Snoen notes that Biden himself is not a strong supporter of free trade, but he does not believe that the conflict between China and the United States will take new turns under his leadership.

– Trade policy measures against China will not be canceled. I’m most excited about the extent to which he manages to lower it a few notches, says the American expert.

Mustad believes that European heads of state and Norway have historically preferred the presidents of the Democrats.

“Because the presidents of the Democrats in general have been more outgoing in terms of safeguarding the reputation of the United States and its reputation internationally and are aware of the important role that the United States plays in the economy and international politics,” says Mustad.

Structural racism

Since George Floyd’s death during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25, widespread protests have erupted in the United States and other parts of the world against police violence and structural racism.

Between May 26 and August 22, 7,750 Black Lives Matter rallies were held across the United States. They were mainly peaceful.

Outgoing President Trump responded first by promising justice to the family of the late George Floyd. He later announced that the riots would be hit hard and that he would restore law and order to the country.

He has received massive criticism for shaking the mood with his handling of the situation.

According to Mustad, it will be important for Biden to take the uprising seriously:

– Try to curb the rhetoric, try to talk to everyone, and not just a few, as we have seen with Trump: who has spoken to his white voters, but try to have an inclusive policy that encompasses all ethnic groups in UNITED STATES.