HOURS before his inauguration as the President of the United States of America, Mr. Joe Biden has embarked upon a tedious exercise of undoing the legacy of outgoing POTUS Mr. Donald Trump. The President-elect has announced a masterplan for first 10 days in office with focus on economy, healthcare and immigration. The plan aims to reboot the US as Mr. Biden and his Democrat colleagues seek to “unTrump” the country and “reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration.” Going by the intent of the incoming President, he has kept a course ready to chart but given the magnitude of the task at hand, the Biden administration will have to pull in massive legal as well as intellectual resources to achieve it. To “restore the dignity to the system”, as Mr. Biden’s Chief of Staff Mr. Ron Klain has termed the masterplan, the new administration will need to engage the Congress in a sustained exercise on cryptic issues for which Mr. Trump has made some popular decisions.

 

The Trump Shadow on the country is still too big and it was clearly demonstrated in the Republican supporters’ charge at the US Capitol to stall the Congress from certifying Mr. Biden’s electoral victory. Much drama has played out since the ugly episode as the US still reels under the aftershock of the siege. Picking up these clues and working a way around the Trump influence will be the first and foremost challenge for Mr. Biden when he seeks undoing of the last legacy. Immediate challenge for Mr. Biden is the fulfilling of his campaign promises which his predecessor did with aplomb without caring about the political and international consequences. His working was based purely on the word he had given to the electorate before assuming power at the Oval Office.

 

World’s political history has seen how leaders have to undertake a balancing act while working between their agenda and the promises made during election campaign. Mr. Trump had chosen a different way to keep his word, in the process disrupting established systems. Undoing that work is not going to be a cakewalk for Mr. Biden. In fact, a keen observation of the memo issued on behalf of the President-elect by Mr. Klain shows Mr. Biden, too, will have to walk the same path that Mr. Trump traversed on some issues of critical importance. The Democrats remained big critics of Mr. Trump for resorting to executive orders to avoid the Congress. Now, with barest control of the Congress despite new balance of power with the Democrats, Mr. Biden would also fulfill his campaign promises through executive orders, presidential memoranda and directives to cabinet agencies, effectively bypassing the Congress and speeding up implementation. Mr. Biden’s narrative, too, is ready to defend the proposed actions that, he feels, would be based on “well-founded legal theory”.

 

How much ice it cuts with the Republicans is anybody’s guess. First hint of what lies in store for Mr. Biden in the Senate is now just a few days away. As the Senate meets to decide on political future of Mr. Trump after his unprecedented second impeachment, how many Republicans desert the ship to give the Democrats the required majority will set course for future actions for Mr. Biden. The numbers game is a tricky challenge and despite his blacking out from social media by Twitter and Facebook, Mr. Trump remains a strong force in the Republican ecosystem. The plan for first 10 days contains many such difficult challenges. However, Mr. Biden’s chance to turn the tide comes on the COVID-19 front as he tries to accomplish his ambitious plan to vaccinate 100 million people in the first 100 days in office. Fighting the raging coronavirus pandemic through a united battle is the biggest necessity today for America. The fight goes beyond the spectrum of political allegiances and leader preferences. If Mr. Biden is successful with his executive decisions in safely reopening schools and businesses, expanding testing and establishing public health standards, it may pave way for fulfilling other campaign promises. “unTrumping” the US is not as easy as it looks.