President Joe Biden flies off Thursday to attend global summits in two European cities. After he climbs the steps of Air Force One he will stop, turn and wave goodbye to a Democratic party scrambling to deliver a roughly $2 trillion spending package and a nation troubled by a host of domestic issues.
First stop is Rome for a G-20 summit and then its on to Glasgow, Scotland, for the COP26 U.N. Climate Change Conference, personal commitments by a president for whom a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border is just one journey too many.
The diplomatic foray comes as Biden faces an increasingly pessimistic nation at home and souring views of his handling of the nation’s economy even as his time physically in Washington remains low.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden has spent 107 of his first 275 days in the Oval Office in Delaware or at Camp David.
In total, Biden has reportedly taken at least 35 personal trips, during which he works “remotely.” The commander-in-chief owns two homes in Delaware, including a beach house, and spends the bulk of his time away, 69 days, in his Wilmington home.
That lack of connection with the day-to-day demands of the job has been noticed by voters.
According to a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, barely 41 percent of Americans now approve of Biden’s economic stewardship, down from 49 percent in August and a sharp reversal since March, when 60 percent approved.
U.S. President Joe Biden gives a speech on his Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and Build Back Better Agenda at the NJ Transit Meadowlands Maintenance Complex on October 25, 2021 in Kearny, New Jersey. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Americans are split on Biden overall, with 48 percent approving and 51 percent disapproving of his handling of his job as president.
Only about a third of Americans say the country is headed in the right direction, also a significant decline since earlier this year when about half said so.
Thursday’s trip and absence has already been addressed by Biden administration officials hoping to downplay its impact on everything from chaos on the southern border to crammed ports, decimated supply chains and rising prices at the pump.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki stressed the president can still work the phones from Rome, the city that gave birth to the word “Senate.” She suggested on Wednesday that foreign leaders can see beyond ongoing back-room talks with U.S. lawmakers in order to judge Biden’s commitment, AP outlines.
“They don’t look at it through the prism of whether there is a vote in one body of the legislative body before he gets on an airplane,” Psaki said.
Biden will visit the Italian hosts of the G-20 summit in Rome before he sits down with French President Emmanuel Macron. Biden is trying to close a rift with France created when the U.S. and U.K. agreed to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, upending a French contract along the way.
The president is also expected to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who backed down just days ago from threats to expel Western diplomats and whose purchase of Russian surface-to-air missiles has upended his country’s participation in the F-35 fighter program.
Closer to home, as of Wednesday evening top Democrats revealed a deal has yet to be reached on the elusive president’s signature domestic initiatives.
Expanded health care programs, free pre-kindergarten and some $500 billion to tackle climate change remain in what’s now at least a $1.75 trillion package are still being argued over.
And Democrats are eyeing a new surcharge on the wealthy — five percent on incomes above $10 million and an additional three percent on those beyond $25 million — to help pay for it, according to AP sources.
All of the above will be waiting when the president returns.
The Associated Press contributed to this story