Joe Biden faces a more skeptical global audience at his first G20 as President
CNN
President Joe Biden will face a more skeptical global audience than his first day in Rome when he attends the Group of 20 Summit, which begins Saturday in the Italian capital after a day of presidential glad-handing with world leaders.
Divisions within Biden's own political party are threatening to derail his entire economic agenda back home, and Biden himself has acknowledged the credibility of the United States and the future of his presidency are on the line. Despite urging lawmakers to give him a legislative win to tout on the world stage -- especially the climate change measures that would give his presence at next week's United Nations Climate Summit extra weight -- Biden has shown up in the Eternal City without a done deal. Added to that complication is the questions coming from some nations about Biden's commitment to working cooperatively on global issues in the wake of the US' chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
This weekend marks the first in-person G20 Summit since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and world leaders are expected to discuss the Covid-19 pandemic, global supply chain problems, a global minimum tax rate, high energy prices and combating the climate crisis, among other topics. The President will raise energy supply issues and throw his backing behind a global minimum tax in the first session of the G20 on Saturday in Rome, a senior administration official says. Those two issues are among the top agenda items for Biden at the conference of the world's largest economies.
The Trump administration has moved with lightning speed to roll out the president’s immigration agenda, effectively closing off the US southern border to asylum seekers, severely limiting who’s eligible to enter the United States and laying the groundwork to swiftly deport migrants already in the country.