In farewell speech, Biden warns of the rise of a new American ‘oligarchy’

By Toluse Olorunnipa, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. (c) 2025 Washington Post

President Joe Biden used his final address from the Oval Office to deliver a somber warning about the threat posed by the “dangerous concentration of power” in the hands of wealthy and well-connected individuals, a thinly veiled reference to billionaire technology executives who have been increasingly signaling their desire to work closely with President-elect Donald Trump.

“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,” Biden said during his farewell speech, days before he steps down from a four-year presidency and a lifetime in public office. “We see the consequences all across America, and we’ve seen it before.”

Biden likened the current crop of tech moguls to the “robber barons” of the 19th century, men like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Recalling President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address warning about the military-industrial complex, Biden decried a “tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers to our country.”

The stark comparisons underscored how a president who has often heralded the “possibilities” afforded by America and proclaimed himself an enduring optimist is ending a 50-year career in public service with deep concerns that the nation’s promise is being eroded by its wealthiest citizens. Biden spoke from a storied location that in five days is to be occupied by Biden’s major political adversary, a man he has described as a threat to democracy and unfit for the presidency.

Tech executives have been visiting and dining with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate and donating millions to his inaugural committee. Tech moguls Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are planning to attend Trump’s inauguration Monday, with prime seating on the dais that illustrates deepening ties between the nation’s top technology leaders and the incoming administration. (Bezos, the founder of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)

Biden’s speech capped a career in which he experienced tragedy and triumph while scaling the heights of political power. His dark tone aligned with the humbling note on which Biden’s career is ending, as his political nemesis surges back into power and pledges to take a wrecking ball to much of Biden’s legacy.

The president had originally planned to deliver this address in 2029 at the end of a second term in office. But at age 82, he faced persistent questions about his physical strength and mental acuity, concerns that ultimately prompted fellow Democrats to force him to end his reelection bid, only to see his chosen successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, lose decisively to Trump.

Biden delivered the speech with images of his family, including his deceased son, Beau, behind him. His voice at times sounded raspy and he stumbled over a few words, but he largely delivered a forceful farewell with stern warnings for the future.

He suggested that artificial intelligence could “spawn new threats to our rights, our way of life, to our privacy.” He lamented the “crumbling” of a free press. He warned that social media companies have given up on trying to verify the information they distribute, a reference to Zuckerberg’s recent decision to end fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram.

“The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit,” he said.

The Senate has begun holding confirmation hearings for officials Trump has selected to fill his Cabinet, which is slated to be the wealthiest group of presidential advisers in modern history.

Still, Biden aimed to balance the warning with a sense of optimism. He recalled how he went from being a child with stutter to becoming the country’s youngest senator and then eventually vice president to the nation’s first Black president. Biden has cast his ascent to the presidency, an office he spent decades pursuing, as a uniquely American tale of opportunity and resilience.

“That’s the magic of America,” he said.

While several presidents have delivered parting speeches from the White House, the setting was more staid than the arena-like atmosphere of former president Barack Obama’s farewell speech in 2017. Obama spoke to some 18,000 supporters at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center, encouraging them against despair, days before Trump was set to be sworn in, and reminding allies of what they had accomplished together.

Obama, too, warned against what he said were the dangers posed by an incoming Trump administration, in some ways prefiguring Biden’s address Wednesday. “If every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking, White middle class and an undeserving minority, then workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves,” Obama said at the time.

Biden also used his speech to list some of his accomplishments, reminding viewers about the pandemic-ravaged economy he had inherited and his efforts to pull the country out of an economic and social morass in 2021. In addition to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, Biden touted the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law, a signature climate bill, and bipartisan wins on issues such as semiconductor manufacturing, veterans’ health care and gun safety.

As Biden and his aides have done repeatedly in the weeks since Trump’s victory, the president argued that the full benefits of his agenda will only be felt in the years and decades ahead, as new roads are paved and factories built. In some ways, the speech was designed to address tomorrow’s historians as much as today’s electorate.

“It will take time to feel the full impact of all we’ve done together,” he said. “But the seeds are planted, and they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come.”

Biden listed safeguards he said should be enacted against abuse of power by leaders of technology and government. He called for revisiting the tax code to make billionaires “pay their fair share,” getting dark money out of politics, instituting term limits and ethical guardrails for the Supreme Court, and banning members of Congress from trading stocks.

In his most direct critique of Trump, whom he did not name, Biden suggested that the country needed a constitutional amendment to reverse a Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed broad immunity for official acts by a president. Trump had sought the immunity after being indicted in two federal cases, one for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and another for allegedly mishandling classified documents.

“We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president – no president – is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office,” Biden said, adding that a president’s power “is not absolute, and it shouldn’t be.”

It is not clear how Biden’s warnings will register with an electorate that soundly rejected his party in November. Leaving office with low approval ratings, Biden has had to grapple with the reality that despite his accomplishments, many Americans have chosen a sharply different direction.

In recent weeks, Biden has delivered legacy-focused speeches, praising his administration’s record on the economy and foreign policy and suggesting that time will prove his doubters wrong.

Biden is the first president since Lyndon B. Johnson to step aside rather than seek a second full term, although the widespread dissatisfaction of fellow Democratic leaders left him little choice.

His remarks Wednesday in some ways echoed the parting words of Johnson, who also had an ambitious domestic agenda but struggled with low approval ratings. Johnson in his 1969 farewell address sought to paint a portrait of progress during his time in office, citing a strong economy, major legislative wins on social programs and advancements for people of color.

Biden spoke hours after his administration had helped broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, ending months of painstaking negotiations. He began his remarks by hailing the agreement, which, if implemented, would reunite nearly three dozen Israeli hostages with their families and provide war-weary Palestinians a reprieve from deadly violence in the Gaza Strip.

“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration,” Biden said. “That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be – working together as Americans.”

Biden’s message offered a sharp contrast to the dystopian view that Trump presented of the country under Biden’s stewardship. Trump, who is set to deliver his inaugural address Monday, has said Biden’s presidency has been among the worst in history. He has strayed from the facts as he has described a nation overrun with criminal migrants, crumbling under runaway inflation and governed by vindictive bureaucrats.

Trump, who famously used his first inaugural speech to rail against “American carnage,” has suggested his mission in a second term will be to undo many of the policies and programs Biden put in place.

While presidents have often used farewell remarks to speak to the challenges ahead, Biden was in the unique position of speaking days before the inauguration of a man he has long described as an existential threat to democracy.

“Trump looms heavily over this because November completely flipped the switch on how Biden’s going to be viewed,” said Tevi Troy, a presidential historian. “He was the dragon-slayer, the guy who defeated Trump … and now he is the guy who let the dragon come back.”

For all the warnings, Biden ended his speech on an optimistic note, suggesting he still had faith that America would live up to its promise.

“I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands, a nation where the strength of our institutions, and the character of our people, matter and must endure,” he said. “Now it’s your turn to stand guard.”

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