Biden Is Lost

Since he took office in January last year, President Joe Biden has openly ignored Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who leads OPEC. Biden treated the crown prince as the invisible man behind the assassination of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018. Biden also cut off aid to Saudi Arabia, which is fighting the Houthis in Yemen, and lifted the designation that classified the Houthis as a terrorist organization. Biden also put a hold on arms sales promised to Saudi Arabia.

Russia intervened while Saudi Arabia was estranged from the United States. Two months after the Khashoggi incident, President Vladimir Putin demonstrated support by approaching the crown prince, who had been neglected at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, sharing high-fives, warm smiles and conversation. The following October, Putin visited Saudi Arabia for the first time in 12 years and showed off his friendship by strengthening relations between the two countries through OPEC and OPEC+, a consultative body for non-OPEC, oil-producing countries.

China, which imports an average of 1.76 million barrels of crude oil a day, more than a quarter of Saudi crude oil exports, is also stepping up efforts to enter the Middle East. Its trade volume has already outpaced that of the United States, and its investment is second only to that of the United States. Pro-U.S. regimes in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, saw that the U.S. could not be the world’s police force as a hegemonic country in the wake of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. It was at that point that I gave up hope.

President Biden’s approval ratings continue to decline. There is a prevailing feeling that not only will Biden’s party face a difficult time during November’s midterm election, but also that Biden will have a difficult time seeking reelection in 2024. Biden returned from his tour of the Middle East empty-handed, a trip he took while he was already under fire. The same thing is true about Biden’s response to inflation. It’s a tangled web. Many critics say that the Biden administration has lost its way in running the country. In the midst of the continued climate crisis, even plans to declare a national emergency were thwarted despite the fact that climate change is a priority for the president. And as we saw, people mocked Biden’s indecision over abortion as a case of “all talk and no action.” He is likely to join the ranks of unpopular presidents behind Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. I don’t know if such leadership can properly refocus a world order centered on the U.S.