WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump accused retiring President Biden on Monday of making his return to high office “as difficult as possible.”
“Biden is doing everything possible to make the TRANSITION as difficult as as [sic] possible, from Lawfare such as has never been seen before, to costly and ridiculous Executive Orders on the Green New Scam and other money wasting Hoaxes,” Trump, 78, posted on Truth Social.
“Fear not, these ‘Orders’ will all be terminated shortly, and we will become a Nation of Common Sense and Strength. MAGA!!!”
Trump issued the statement shortly before Congress certified his victory in the Electoral College — and after Biden, 82, banned drilling for oil and natural gas off most of America’s coastline, with the total area covered by the order greater than the land of Alaska and Texas combined.
The legislative formality took place four years after a mob of then-President Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to halt confirmation of Biden’s 2020 win after Trump said the results were fraudulent.
Biden’s aides have spent their final weeks scrambling to prevent Trump from clawing back funds that were approved by Congress over the past four years — after Republicans said the spending fueled inflation.
Those bills included a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 and stimulus bill, the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law and the $280 billion bipartisan Chips and Science Act — plus the $437 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which included what was estimated as $369 in environmental grants and subsidies.
White House officials told the Washington Post in November that 98% of funds from those four bills had been committed through fiscal 2024 and that Biden’s team was working to dispense the remainder.
Officials also were draining $183 billion in congressional approved funds for Ukraine’s defense against the nearly three-year-old Russian invasion.
Biden welcomed Trump back to the White House eight days after his Nov. 5 election win and pledged an orderly transition, though Trump officials expressed wariness about signing memorandums of understanding outlining the framework for cooperation.
The Trump transition last month reached agreements on matters such as background checks for incoming officials, after uneasy Republicans noted the quartet of criminal cases lodged against Trump, which the former and future president says were politically motivated to derail his return to the White House.
