Joe Biden: will Trump's return be his legacy?

Joe Biden wanted to go down in history as the man who saved America from Donald Trump. Instead he may be remembered for handing Trump a second term in the White House.

In years to come Biden, 82, may be judged more kindly. The Democrat steered a divided country out of the Covid-19 pandemic and the chaos of Trump's first four years, before pushing through an impressive raft of legislation.

But Biden's single term will now be bookended by his rival's presidencies. And it will be defined by a single fateful decision -- to defy mounting concerns about his age and run for reelection in 2024.

For many the defining image of the 46th US president will be a haunted-looking Biden lost for words in the disastrous debate against Trump that eventually forced him out of the race.

His replacement as Democratic candidate, his Vice President Kamala Harris, was left with an almost impossible task to prevent Trump's return.

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If Biden insisted until the end that he could have beaten his Republican nemesis, he still admitted that it may take a while to restore his reputation.

"It will take time to feel the full impact of all we have done together, but the seeds are planted," he said in his farewell address.

- Historic challenges -

Biden's inauguration in January 2021 was a remarkable comeback for an often underestimated politician who spent a lifetime battling both political odds and personal tragedy.

But he was an unlikely savior.

Biden was America's oldest elected president at the time -- until Trump's election in 2024 -- and arguably more famous for his gaffes and for being Barack Obama's vice president.

And he faced historic challenges. The country was reeling from the January 6, 2021 Capitol assault by Trump supporters protesting his election defeat, while the US economy was shattered by Covid.

But Biden quickly forced a massive pandemic recovery scheme and a huge green investment plan through Congress as he sought to rebuild American industry and infrastructure.

In Harris he appointed the first Black, South Asian and female vice president.

Western allies welcomed his commitment to the alliances Trump had trashed.

Perhaps Biden's proudest achievement was supporting Ukraine against Russia's 2022 invasion -- and his top secret trip to Kyiv in 2023.

- 'Get back up' -

But Biden's popularity suffered an early blow with the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 -- and never really recovered. His approval rating was just 36 percent in a final CNN poll.

His pandemic stimulus sent inflation soaring, part of the reason Americans punished Harris at the polls. His lax border policies led to a record crossings of illegal immigrants, which Trump pounced on.

While he claimed a late boost to his legacy with a Gaza ceasefire deal, he angered many with his unstinting support for Israel's war on Hamas despite a soaring death toll.

Despite it all, Biden believed he was the only person who could beat Trump again.

Fond of folksy tales about his upbringing as a child with a stutter from a blue-collar, Irish Catholic background in Pennsylvania, he would often quote his father's mantra: "When you get knocked down, you get back up."

He had battled through the tragedy of a car crash that killed his wife and baby daughter in 1972, just days after he'd been elected a US senator at the age of 29 -- then rebuilt his life with the help of his second wife, First Lady Jill Biden.

Then there was the death of his older son Beau from brain cancer in 2015, and the drug and legal problems of his younger son Hunter, to whom he controversially issued a pardon.

- 'Magic of America' -

But age was a battle he couldn't win.

Trump dubbed Biden "Sleepy Joe" and every stumble -- on the stairs of Air Force One, off his bike -- was relentlessly replayed on social media.

Republican attacks -- and Democratic doubts -- mounted after Biden reneged on his promise to be a bridge to a new generation and announced in 2023 that he'd seek reelection.

The White House insisted there was no problem and increasingly shielded Biden from unscripted public appearances -- until it was too late.

In his final days in office, Biden provided the smooth transition that Trump denied him. He invited Trump to the White House and the two rivals engaged in unprecedented cooperation on the Gaza deal.

Yet he also had a parting shot for Trump, warning in his farewell speech of a dangerous "oligarchy taking shape in America."

And if Biden's 50-year-political career ended in disappointment, he saw a bright side.

"Only in America do we believe anything is possible, like a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings... sitting behind this desk in the Oval Office as president," he said.

"That's the magic of America."