TIME marks start of Biden’s presidency with cover of Oval Office trashed by Trump

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This week, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made history, and now TIME Magazine has released their commemorative cover celebrating the first day of the administration, which also sends a clear message about the proverbial mess left behind by former President Donald Trump.

Both Biden and Harris were named TIME’s Person of the Year after receiving a record-breaking 81 million votes.

In the cover story for this latest issue, writer Charlotte Alter takes a detailed look at the challenges our new president will face in order to keep his promise of uniting a country that has become increasingly divided.

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“Biden now leads a country divided between Americans who believe in facts and Americans who distrust them,” Alter writes. “Between those who want a multiracial Republic and those who seek to invalidate nonwhite votes, between those with faith in democratic institutions and those who put faith only in Trump.”

“At the very least, that faith must be rooted in some sense of shared reality, a willingness to agree to disagree according to the laws laid out in the Constitution,” she continues, noting, “At the dawn of Biden’s presidency, when millions of Republicans believe the false conspiracy theory that the election was stolen, and thousands turned to violence to ‘stop the steal,’ even that simple foundation seems wobbly.”

Alter surmises that Biden may never be able to bring the country country. But it may not be a lost effort for him to try.

“Joe Biden may never unify America,” Alter concludes. “That may not even be possible in a nation so riven by disinformation and delusion. But if he can get Americans who disagree on everything else to agree on the democratic process, if he can help restore political debate to the realm of truth, if he can deliver enough solutions to restore some small faith in government, that would be a start. America still won’t be united, but it could be united enough.”

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