President Biden also laid out proposed future reforms, including a Constistutional amendment to limit presidential immunity, tax reforms, and term limits for Supreme Court justices
By Miriam Raftery
Hear audio of President Biden’s farewell address; view video, read transcript
January 19, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – In his farewell address to the nation delivered in the White House oval office on January 15, President Joe Biden issued a warning reminiscent of the farewell speech delivered by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1961.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” President Biden said. Specifically, he cited “the concentration of technology, power and wealth” and warned of “dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.”
President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated tomorrow, has surrounded himself with wealthy tech company executives, drawing controversy. There are parallels to the Russian oligarchs who wield undue influence over Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and have profited from his reign, while supporting his policies. Trump has tapped billionaire Elon Musk, head of Tesla and Space-X which both have received large federal contracts or grants, to lead a non-governmental commission called the Department of Government Efficiency to improve government “efficiency” and recommend deep spending cuts. Critics have said this poses a conflict of interest for Musk.
Other tech billionaires have changed their business platforms to appease Trump after he leveled criticisms. Mark Zuckerberg, head of Meta, halted fact-checking on Facebook. Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon as well as the Washington Post, blocked an editorial decision to endorse Kamala Harris over Trump and announced an end to diversity, equity and inclusive policies in line with Trump’s stated goal of eliminating DEI protections for minorities and women at the federal level.
Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg all plan to be at Trump’s inauguration. “When you have the three richest men in the country on the dais,” Sarah Anderson, global economy project director at the Policy Studies nonprofit research group told ABC news, “You cannot overlook how much influence the billionaire has on the government.”
Daniel Kinderman, an associate professor of political science at the University of Delaware, agrees with Biden’s assessment that current income inequality in the U.S. now amounts to “oligarchic conditions.” He called the current situation “a turbocharged technological oligarchy that has control over media and technology” by unelected tech tycoons.
Kinderman, in an ABC news interview, pointed out that the top 1% of Americans own 35% of the nation’s wealth and capital, while the bottom 50% of Americans own just 1.5%. He said the nation is now in uncharted territory due to top tech CEOs having more control over public and political discourse. He voiced concern that such CEOs could “write their own rules that just benefit their own industry.”
Biden voiced concern over corporations controlling the media as well as social media. “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and profit.” He also voiced concern about progress toward addressing the climate crisis on the brink of being undone “for power and profit.”
He likened the rise of wealthy moguls with too much power both to the robber barons in the 1920s and to the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned Americans about in 1961.
Eisenhower, a respected former general and Republican, warned of the rise of an immense military establishing and arms industry following World War II and the Korean War. “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex,” he warned in his final speech to the nation as President. “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist,” Eisenhower warned, adding that this could threaten American liberties and the democratic process.
Eisenhower noted that a technology revolution had given rise to the growth of the industrial-military complex, but offered a remedy. “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together,” Eisenhower concluded, urging Americans to avoid “fear and hate” that fuels wars and division, and to and to instead support “mutual trust and respect” for “peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations” and “all who yearn for freedom.” He called for efforts to end “poverty, disease and ignorance” in order to foster peace and prosperity.
Biden, a Democrat, quoted Eisenhower and similarly called on the American people, the media, and all branches of government to “confront these powerful forces.”
With Republicans controlling both houses of Congress and the presidency, however, the prospect of the legislative branch serving its role of checks and balances appears dim. Similarly, a Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority, including three justices appointed by Trump in his first administration, has issued a ruling granting near-total immunity to a president for any official acts while in office, dimming hopes of judicial oversight.
That leaves the free press and most significantly, the public. In the 1920s, the abuses of the robber barons eventually diminished in large part due to the rise of labor unions and new legislation to rein in those abuses. Massive protests led to the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Most recently, some Americans have pushed back on tech giants’ actions; 250,000 cancelled their subscriptions to the Washington Post over Bezo’s decisions supporting Trump, while millions have dropped accounts on Facebook, Instagram and X sites owned by the tech-oligarchs.
President Biden laid out a list of specific actions he hopes will someday be taken to protect our democracy and national security. Those include:
- Assure that artificial intelligence development is led by America, not China;
- Reform the tax code to have billionaires pay their fair share, instead of getting massive tax cuts;
- Get dark money contributions out of politics;
- Enact 18-year term limits and ethics requirements for Supreme Court justices
- Ban members of Congress from trading stock while serving in the House or Senate; and
- Amend the Constitution to make clear that no president is immune from crimes he or she commits while in office.
After Biden's farewell address, Google reported a sharp rise in searches for the term "oligarch"; among the top 10 states with rises in searches for the term, eight were in red Republican-controlled states, ABC reports.
Biden’s speech also included confirmation of the cease-fire deal reached with Hamas, which today released several hostages in the first step toward a permanent cease fire.
He also highlighted his administrations accomplishments, including guiding America out of the COVID pandemic, creating nearly 17 million new jobs, getting a major bill passed to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, passing the most extensive green energy measure ever, strengthening the NATO alliance and helping Ukraine stay free, giving Medicare the power to lower prescription drug costs, getting medical care for veterans exposed to toxins, and launching “a new era of American possibilities.”
He voiced confidence in the ideals that America stands for, the concept that “all of us deserve to be treated with dignity, justice and fairness.” But to protect our rights, freedoms and dreams, Biden said, “We have to stay engaged in the process,” even when that’s frustrating.
He reflected on the Statue of Liberty as an abiding symbol of liberty and the ideal that everyone deserves to be treated with “dignity, justice and fairness.” He told of a veteran known as keeper of the flame, because he was in charge of polishing the statue’s torch to keep the light shining visibly,
“Now it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame,” Biden told the American people.
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