Politics
Column: Biden shows what it means to make America great — and why Democrats are glad to bid him farewell
The Democratic National Convention started off with hope, hype and smaller protests than some feared — and a surprise appearance from Kamala Harris, looking very demure, very mindful.
(That’s a TikTok thing, if you don’t know.)
The snark level, meantime, was sky-high as cheeky partisans projected onto Trump Tower — which loomed over downtown like a middle finger extended at Democrats — a set of taunting slogans along the lines of: “Trump-Vance ‘Weird As Hell.’ ”
That’s trolling on a 92-story scale.
There were a great many speeches and a great number of entertainers, representing Democratic constituencies from Hollywood to Nashville. (Yes, there are still some Southern Democrats.)
But, of course, Monday night belonged to Joe Biden, the president who reluctantly walked away from his reelection campaign and showed up just long enough to endorse Harris before making his poignant exit — long after much of the country had gone to bed.
Columnists Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria laid off the deep-dish pizza so they could devote all their energies to the convention and came away with these thoughts:
Barabak: He came, he spoke and he showed why Democrats were glad to bid their party leader a heartfelt — but nevertheless relieved — farewell.
Biden has never been a great orator. His strength was knowing how to work the levers in Washington, and for just about 45 minutes Monday night the president outlined all he’d managed to accomplish in his lone term.
Simply stated, he said: “We’re building a better America.”
Biden, too, was mindful, making a point of wrapping Harris in the mantle of his successes. (And the last 3½ years have been filled with nothing but an unbroken series of triumphs, to hear the president tell it, but, hey, it’s a convention speech.)
After he cited legislation bringing down the costs of some prescription drugs, the crowd chanted, “Thank you, Joe!”
“Thank you, Kamala, too!” he interjected.
The emotions were genuine.
Biden was greeted with a lusty ovation lasting more than 4½ minutes, by far the longest of the night. He pulled a white hanky from his breast pocket and dabbed away a tear after a prolonged embrace from his daughter, Ashley, who delivered a loving introduction.
It was moving to hear Biden discuss the long arc of his career — from too young to serve in the Senate (he was 29 when first elected and turned the required age of 30 shortly before being sworn in) to being too old to serve another term as president, as he finally acknowledged.
It was also a reminder of why Democrats collectively looked to November’s election with heart-in-their-throats anxiety — and that was even before Biden’s crashingly awful debate performance.
On Monday night he appeared every bit his 81 years. He was stiff, occasionally stumbling over his words. His waxen face was frozen in a perpetual scowl. He shouted out his words, not at all the joyful warrior of Harris-Walz fashion, but more like a cranky old man shooing kids off his lawn.
The contrast with Harris, who bounded onstage afterward to embrace Biden and join him in the traditional arms-raised tableau, couldn’t have been more stark.
There was speculation that convention programmers purposely pushed the president’s appearance out of television’s prime time on the East Coast and, by the time he finished, in the Central time zone. Of course, they denied it; the program ran long because speakers were just so darned popular, people wouldn’t stop cheering and clapping, party officials said.
What did you think about Biden’s speech?
Chabria: The emotions were genuine, as you say, but I think they were also complex.
Nancy Pelosi had tears in her eyes, though many claim she was a key architect of Biden’s exit. When Harris went onstage she told Biden — not for the cameras — that she loved him.
Ashley Biden brought up the spirit of her departed brother, Beau, and at the end, Biden walked offstage with a young grandson, named in that son’s honor.
When the crowd chanted “Thank you, Joe,” Biden seemed resigned, but also a bit defiant with the long list of accomplishments he touted — reminding us how much he’s done that seems forgotten in the scrum of the election.
Until a few weeks ago, this was a proud and stubborn man who believed not only that he was the best person for the presidency, but believed we thought so, too. So Monday night — as much as it was billed as a gratitude-driven sendoff — was also a forced retirement for a guy who does know more about government and governance than half of Congress combined.
My takeaway is that for all his flaws, and we all have them, this is a man of duty and honor.
Biden quoted a line from the song “American Anthem” to sum up why he made the choice to step away from power: “What shall our legacy be, what will our children say? Let me know in my heart when my days are through, America, America, I gave my best to you,” he said.
And there’s no doubt he gave his best, for decades.
But, as Hillary Clinton said in an earlier speech, change is afoot. And that change doesn’t include Biden.
Barabak: It was a forward-looking Clinton appearance, yes. But the might-have-been vibe was strong when the former first lady and secretary of State took the stage.
The ovation lasted nearly a minute and a half, as Clinton repeatedly started and stopped over the prolonged clapping and cheers.
She acknowledged the outgoing incumbent — “first, let’s salute President Biden” — then dwelled at length on the history-making nature of Harris’ candidacy.
“Something is happening in America,” said Clinton, who was the first woman to win a major party’s presidential nomination. “Something we’ve waited for and dreamed of for a long time.”
More than 66 million Americans voted for her in 2016, Clinton noted, poking more than 66 million small holes in the glass ceiling that’s kept a woman from the Oval Office.
She then tore with relish into the man who beat her — not in the popular vote but narrowly in the electoral college.
“Kamala Harris” — a former district attorney and California’s attorney general— “prosecuted murderers and drug traffickers. Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial,” Clinton gibed. “And when he woke up, he made his own kind of history” as the first ex-president convicted of a felony.
“Lock him up!” the crowd chanted, and Clinton smiled.
Anita, you were taken with one of the non-celebrity speakers, weren’t you?
Chabria: I really felt what April Varrett said, and what she represented.
Varrett, the first Black woman to lead the Service Employees International Union, came out of California as the former head of SEIU Local 2015, the state’s largest local union representing long-term care workers.
Its rank-and-file consists of many Black and brown women, a number of whom are immigrants struggling with poverty in an industry as necessary as it is underfunded. Varrett promised to create a labor movement that is “younger, darker, hipper, fresher, sneaker-wearing.”
That is a powerful vision that is already happening in both labor and politics. I think in a little-noticed way, this convention is all about immigration and communities of color — the immigrants who fuel our economy, fight for their communities and now are claiming political power in a way that terrifies conservatives to the point they demonize them.
Comparing the crowd at the Republican National Convention to the one in Chicago is startling. It really feels like two different Americas, and a crossroads election where we decide which one we believe in.
I was also struck by the everyday Americans who spoke about abortion access. Hadley Duvall, a Kentuckian who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather when she was 12, floored the room with a single question.
Trump calls abortion bans a “beautiful thing,” she said. “What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?”
What else stood out to you?
Barabak: How several of the night’s speakers, in addition to Clinton, leaned into the historic nature of Harris’ nomination as the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead a major party presidential ticket.
That was a major theme in 2020, when Harris first ran for president, and it seemed at times that campaign was more about her hopes of making history than what voters had on their minds.
But there’s no denying the precedent-shattering nature of Harris’ nomination, and it was celebrated with the right amount of balance and perspective.
The vice president was placed in a long line of pioneering women who helped tear down race and gender barriers, among them Diane Nash, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Coretta Scott King and Shirley Chisholm.
“We must all understand that Black history is American history,” said Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP. “And in this historic moment, we will write the next chapter together.”
That remains to be seen, depending on what happens in November. But there is no doubt the moment inscribed in Chicago stands apart from all that have preceded.
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Minnesota filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration, accusing federal health officials of illegally withholding $243 million in Medicaid payments from the state.
Attorney General Keith Ellison and the Minnesota Department of Human Services sued the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), arguing the funding freeze violates federal law.
The state is seeking a temporary restraining order to immediately block the action.
The dispute stems from a January notice in which the Trump administration said it would withhold more than $2 billion annually from Minnesota’s Medicaid program over what it described as “noncompliance” with federal regulations, specifically, alleged failures to “adequately identify, prevent, and address fraud in its Medicaid program.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison speaks during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill. (Tom Brenner/AP)
State officials say they have not been told specifically how Minnesota is out of compliance or what changes the administration wants to see.
The lawsuit follows a Feb. 25 announcement from CMS that it was deferring roughly $260 million in quarterly federal Medicaid funding to Minnesota, including about $243 million tied to “unsupported or potentially fraudulent” claims.
CMS said the deferral is part of a broader fraud crackdown and cited unusually high spending and rapid growth in personal care services, home- and community-based services, and other practitioner services.
HEAVILY-REDACTED AUDIT FINDS MINNESOTA MEDICAID HAD WIDESPREAD VULNERABILITIES
Vice President JD Vance looks on as Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz speaks about combating fraud at the White House complex in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25, 2026. (Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images)
“For decades, Medicare fraud has drained billions from American taxpayers — that ends now,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “We are replacing the old ‘pay and chase’ model with a real-time ‘detect and deploy’ strategy, using advanced AI tools to identify fraud instantly and stop improper payments before they go out the door.”
Minnesota officials contend the move improperly uses a funding “deferral” mechanism and amounts to denying the state due process before any formal finding of noncompliance.
WALZ SLAMS TRUMP ADMIN FOR TEMPORARILY HALTING MEDICAID FUNDING TO MINNESOTA: ‘CAMPAIGN OF RETRIBUTION’
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The threatened cuts represent about 7% of Minnesota’s quarterly Medicaid funding and could force reductions in health care services for low-income residents, according to Ellison’s office.
“Trump’s M.O. is to cut first, no matter what the law says or who gets hurt, and ask questions later, if at all,” the attorney general said. “These cuts are the latest in a long series of efforts to go around the law to punish Minnesotans — but just as we fought back and won when they illegally tried to cut funding for childcare, hungry families, and our schools, we are suing them again today to make them follow the law.”
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Politics
Fearing GOP win, California’s Democratic leader urges unviable party candidates for governor to drop out
Fearing the prospect of a Republican winning California’s gubernatorial race, state Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks on Tuesday urged his party’s candidates who lack a viable path to victory to drop out.
“It is imperative that every candidate honestly assess the viability of their candidacy and campaign,” Hicks wrote in an open letter to the politicians vying to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom. “I recognize my suggestions are hard for many to contemplate and may be even viewed as overly harsh by some.”
Hicks did not name the Democrats he wants out of the race, but such a public admonishment by a party leader is a rarity in California politics.
Even though the odds are relatively low, California cannot risk having a Republican elected as the next governor at a time when President Trump is in the White House, Hicks said.
“[S]o much is at stake in our Nation and so many are counting on the leadership of California Democrats to stand up and speak out at this historic moment,” Hicks wrote. “California’s leadership on the world stage is significantly harder if a Democrat is not elected as our next Governor.”
Hicks urged Democrats languishing at the bottom of the field of candidates to drop out before the Friday deadline to officially file to run for governor — to ensure their names do not appear on the June primary ballot.
Under California’s top-two primary system, the two candidates who receive the most votes in the June primary advance to the November general election, regardless of party.
With nine top Democrats running, the fear is that the candidates will splinter their party’s vote and allow the top two Republicans in the race to finish in first and second place. This is despite Democratic registered voters outnumbering Republicans in the state by almost 2 to 1, and no GOP candidate winning a statewide election since 2006.
Having two Republicans competing in the November election would be devastating to Democratic voter turnout and could hurt party candidates in pivotal down-ballot races.
“The result would present a real risk to winning the congressional seats required and imperil Democrats’ chances to retake the House, cut Donald Trump’s term in half, and spare our Nation from the pain many have endured since January 2025,” Hicks said in his letter. “We simply can’t let that happen.”
A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that five candidates lead the contest — former Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Eric Swalwell and hedge fund founder Tom Steyer among Democrats and conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, both Republicans. Hilton and Bianco have led all candidates in other polls over the last few months. No other candidate received the support of more than 5% of likely voters.
After Hicks issued his directive, two influential leaders in California Democratic politics said they shared his concerns.
Lorena Gonzalez, the head of the California Federation of Labor Unions, said she worries that Democratic candidates who are drawing low single-digit support in the polls and remain in the race could tilt the election.
“You’re in a situation where a candidate who pulls 2 or 3% could make all the difference whether there’s two Republicans and anti-union folks in the runoff or if there’s not,” she said.
Gonzalez said that while she believes the legislature, where Democrats hold super majorities in both chambers, would be a check if a Republican was elected the state’s leader, that might not be enough protect Californians from Trump’s destructive policies.
“We are seeing with Trump how much damage an executive who wants to ignore normal rules of engagement or the Constitution can do,” she said. “We can’t afford that.”
The federation began its endorsement process last week, and there were difficult conversations with gubernatorial candidates not only about their political beliefs, but also about their viability. The umbrella group of unions is expected to make an announcement about any potential endorsement on March 16.
Jodi Hicks, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said it was imperative to block the “real possibility” of two Republicans advancing to the general election because of the deep cuts that the Trump administration has made to health care, including access to abortion.
“Given the severity of this moment, we urge candidates to consider how continuing their candidacy may put California’s values and reproductive freedom at risk,” Jodi Hicks said. “The stakes are too high for all of us, but especially for immigrant communities, transgender individuals, the over 15 million patients enrolled in Medi-Cal, and the over 25,000 patients a week who access essential health care at Planned Parenthood health centers.”
Discussions about the need for some Democrats to exit the race took place at last weekend’s California Democratic Party convention.
But a politically thorny issue is that nearly all of the Democrats lagging in the polls are people of color, as former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra noted at a candidate forum Monday evening.
“There are people who are calling for candidates to get out of the race,” he said at the gathering hosted by Equality California and the Los Angeles LGBT Center at the Renberg Theatre in Hollywood. “Isn’t it interesting that the candidates they are asking get out of the race are the candidates of color?”
Rusty Hicks, asked about the effect on minority candidates who have spent years or decades of their lives in public service, did not directly answer the question but lauded the field’s accomplishments.
“We have a number of strong candidates. They have incredible stories, and they are reflective of the diversity of our party. That being said, there are some political realities of where we are at at this particular moment,” he said in an interview. “I’m not calling on any specific candidates to move in one direction or the other. I’m just calling on them to assess their campaign and determine if they have a viable [path] and if they don’t, to not file.”
During Monday evening’s gubernatorial forum, Porter said she is concerned about the prospect of two Republicans making the top two.
“I hear people say to me, it could never happen, but everybody said that about Trump too,” she said at the forum. “And I look at how much harm we’re suffering, and I think about all the political risks that people are facing every day, the risk of an immigrant to leave their home and walk on our streets, the risk of a kid who’s trans to try to play sports even in this state. And I just don’t think we can take any more political risks.”
Times staff writer Phil Willon contributed to this report.
Since moving back in, President Trump has significantly altered the “People’s House.” East Wing: gone. Oval Office: maximalized. Rose Garden: Mar-a-lago-ified. And the art? Lots of Trump.
Over the last year, The New York Times has captured at least nine paintings, posters, memes, and even a mugshot outside the Oval Office, that Mr. Trump added throughout the historic space.
Many of the selections are gifts from his supporters that highlight his political stature and reinforce the idea that Mr. Trump is invincible.
All presidents or first ladies add to and shuffle the art in the White House.
Barack Obama brought in abstract paintings.
George W. Bush decorated with images from his Texas roots.
In Mr. Trump’s first term, Melania Trump added a sculpture by Isamu Noguchi to the Rose Garden.
But never before has a sitting president displayed so much of his own image on the White House walls.
There is an “assertion of symbolic power that he wants to be on view essentially everywhere in that space,” said Cara Finnegan, a communication professor at the University of Illinois and author of “Photographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital.”
Even outside his current residence, Mr. Trump’s visage has proliferated in unexpected places — on banners hanging from government buildings, on National Parks passes and on social media, where he has been likened to a king. There has also been talk of a U.S. Treasury-minted coin with Mr. Trump on both sides.
Break with tradition
In recent decades, each president’s official White House portrait has been unveiled in a ceremony hosted by his successor.
The Carters hosted the Fords:
The Clintons hosted the Bushes:
And the Bushes hosted the Clintons:
The mood has often been lighthearted, with political party tensions melting away.
“I am pleased that my portrait brings an interesting symmetry to the White House collection,” George W. Bush joked in a ceremony hosted by the Obamas. “It now starts and ends with a George W.”
In a break with tradition, Mr. Trump did not schedule a ceremony for the unveiling of the Obamas’ portraits during his first term. Joe Biden later did, in a ceremony with a “Welcome Home!” vibe.
Typically, the latest available presidential portrait — often a realistic oil painting — hangs in the main entrance hall, where heads of state are welcomed.
The Obama portrait was in the spot until April …
… when Mr. Trump replaced it with this painting by Marc Lipp, a Florida pop artist, last April.
It depicts a striking moment in 2024 when a bloodied Mr. Trump pumped his fist in defiance, soon after being shot at by a would-be assassin during a campaign event.
Presidential historians have criticized the departure from convention.
Though Mr. Trump had a portrait commissioned for the Smithsonian’s American Presidents collection after his first term, none was confirmed for the permanent White House collection, and the White House said that this is where that portrait would have hung.
It is not totally unprecedented for a president to hang a painting of himself in the White House during his term. Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Grover Cleveland all did, according to the White House Historical Association. But more often than not, paintings of presidents and first ladies are hung after they have left office, historians said.
Flags, fists and faith from fans
In what has become something of a muse for many of the president’s artistic supporters, there are at least three other depictions of the fist-pumping scene in the White House.
The image “is in people’s garages when I walk around my neighborhood,” said Leslie Hahner, a Texas resident and communication professor at Baylor University, who studies visual political culture. “People love that image.”
Behind the Oval Office, one is in a small room that houses Trump merchandise:
Another was seen in the West Wing next to a “Still Life with Fruit” painting from 1850:
A statue form was spotted in the Oval Office:
The sculptor, Stan Watts, told a Utah TV station last year that he believes the president was saved by God that day. Many of Mr. Trump’s Christian supporters have echoed that sentiment.
At least two works by a self-described “Christian worship artist,” Vanessa Horabuena, are among Mr. Trump’s White House collection. He has called Ms. Horabuena, who often paints live in front of an audience, “one of the greatest artists anywhere in the world.”
In 2022, she painted a portrait of Mr. Trump at a booth at the Conservative Political Action Conference. When he saw it, he asked to meet her, Ms. Horabuena’s representative said. She most recently painted Mr. Trump live at a New Year’s Eve party at Mar-A-Lago.
One of her portraits was spotted in the Cabinet room in January.
It shows Mr. Trump, his eyes closed, in front of a mountain with a small cross on the top:
Ms. Horabuena hand-delivered it to the White House, according to her website.
Her other painting shows the president walking through a phalanx of flags. It was seen hanging prominently in a hallway leading to the Cabinet Room and the Oval Office:
“He’s positioned as this embattled warrior in a lot of these images,” Dr. Hahner said.
Historical figures Mr. Trump adulates are co-stars in some of the art he has chosen.
In an image created by the team of White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, Mr. Trump is pictured with William McKinley and Henry Clay, who, like the president, championed the use of tariffs:
Here, Mr. Trump is with two other Republican presidents, Abraham Lincoln (to whom he has compared himself) and Ronald Reagan (whom he is a fan of):
Titled “Great American Patriots,” the piece was painted by Dick Bobnick, an illustrator and Trump supporter from Minnesota. He said he mailed several prints to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but he had no idea his work was on the White House walls until a USA Today reporter called him about it.
“I could hardly believe it,” said Mr. Bobnick. (He said the print is now his best-seller.)
If not in portraits, Mr. Trump’s image is reflected on mirrors that he has added to the White House complex.
Two are in the Oval Office …
… making his image visible from the Resolute Desk.
The mirrors, the portraits and the gilding mimic the look of his properties, like Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate.
“Trump is obsessed with his image,” Dr. Hahner said. “And he is so controlling of his image.”
Trump everywhere, all the time
One portrait seen in the White House has become a communication tool between Mr. Trump and his supporters in the real world.
This is his social media profile picture.
It was seen last October hanging between former first ladies Laura Bush and Barbara Bush in the now-demolished East Wing:
The portrait was painted by Lena Ruseva, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, who goes by the name MAGALANGELO. Mr. Trump invited her to his Bedminster golf club in 2022, and she gave it to him as a birthday gift.
“Every time social media or the news quotes the president and I see my artwork alongside it, I feel proud and grateful,” she said.
For a time, the same portrait hung next to Hillary Clinton, his political rival and a former first lady.
Supporters at that time lauded the placement on social media:
This example of a positive feedback loop demonstrates how Mr. Trump has used social media to redefine the presidency and presidential communication. Ms. Ruseva’s portrait was used on social media, hung up in the real world, then photographed and put back on social media by supporters who praised the president.
When Mr. Trump was elected to his first term in 2016, Dr. Hahner said that scholars referred to him as the first “meme president.”
Mr. Trump and his internet fans are used to a meme culture based on irony, and rehashing, repurposing and remixing existing images. The collection of White House artwork — much of it originating from his supporters — sits in an uncanny valley between realism and meme-ism, Dr. Hahner said.
Like memes that multiply, Mr. Trump’s image has been reproduced in other ways, outside the White House.
Last month, a huge banner with Mr. Trump’s face was draped outside the Justice Department headquarters …
Last year, similar signage was strung over the Labor Department building …
… and the Agriculture Department building (this one, alongside Lincoln).
At his request, Mr. Trump’s portrait was recently updated at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery:
Still, Mr. Trump wants more. The White House has suggested that the National Portrait Gallery add a separate section for Trump-related art.
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