Editor’s note: President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 people on federal death row to life in prison.

President Biden is preparing to leave the White House without much fanfare.

Democrats are eager to put behind them a bad year in which they lost again to President-elect Trump, who has hogged much of the spotlight well before his second inauguration.

Biden, for his part, has made several major trips abroad since the election. He also pardoned his son, is working on a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, increasing aid to Ukraine and working holidays while giving speeches in and around Washington.

He also caused a stir just before Christmas when he announced he would commute the sentences of 37 people on federal death row.

But the president’s public presence is barely noticeable, while Trump’s flurry of announcements for his second Cabinet, a television interview and his first news conference since his election victory at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida make up much of the media atmosphere.

Except that at the end of the year, Trump and his allies intervened in the stressful negotiations over government funding, about which Biden and the White House were largely silent. That chorus was instead largely led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

Republicans said Biden’s absence from key moments was par for the course – in addition to him avoiding the press at almost all costs.

“He disappeared a long time ago. We saw him go to Africa, didn’t answer questions for everyone to see, and were largely shielded from the press. We know he’s going to Italy, and the media will probably have the same access,” said GOP strategist Doug Heye.

Democrats have also done little to bolster their party’s leader, instead expressing their expectation that Biden will leave office even if they don’t like who comes next.

“There is great disappointment in the way this presidency is ending. “It’s almost tantamount to resigning at this point,” said a Democratic lobbyist.

“Among Democrats, no one is looking forward to Donald Trump becoming president, but everyone is ready for the end of the Biden presidency.”

Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Obama, said Trump’s news conference highlighted the idea that Biden was absent from the public stage – even though Biden himself gave a speech at the Labor Department while Trump announced a $100 billion investment from SoftBank .

“It was more or less a standard presidential policy announcement, with the main difference: Trump is not yet president. “A fact that is becoming increasingly easy to forget as Joe Biden appears to be disappearing from the public stage as his term ends,” Favreau said on his “Pod Save America” podcast.

Favreau and his co-hosts also pointed to Trump’s presence at the Army-Navy game in early December and emphasized that Biden was never in attendance. Trump once again found himself in the media spotlight, including through his entourage, including his embattled nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.

Some Democrats said they didn’t mind Trump’s spotlight in the last month, noting that he wasn’t behaving inappropriately and appeared more measured than he did eight years ago.

Others point out that Obama attracted media attention in 2008 when he was first elected as former President George W. Bush left the White House.

The fact that Trump is acting like a president before he’s officially in office was described by a longtime Democratic donor and bundler as “a media problem” rather than an actual problem.

“I didn’t see much of what he did that was offensive. It’s getting people to invest in the United States, which is a good thing. He meets with foreign leaders. When other people win elections, they often answer calls with foreign leaders. I’m sure the face-to-face conversations aren’t all that different from the ones on the phone,” the source said. “If he behaves inappropriately that would be problematic, but he seems more moderate than he was eight years ago.”

Democratic supporters are upset about Biden’s remaining time in office.

“I think people, including probably a lot of people in the White House, are just prepared for it to be over. The government accomplished a lot, but the most important thing was to win, and we didn’t win,” the longtime Democratic donor and bundler added.

The White House continues to work behind the scenes on two major foreign fronts as it seeks to increase aid to Ukraine and reach a ceasefire agreement to end fighting in Gaza.

But Trump has once again drawn more attention through some of his meetings with foreign leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after he threatened tariffs while joking that he would make Canada the 51st nation.

Adam Abrams, a communications official in the Obama White House, argued that Biden could still command attention in the final days of his presidency to define his legacy on his terms if he chooses to do so from his bully pulpit.

“President Biden can and will take full advantage of the bully pulpit to define his historic legacy by detailing everything he has accomplished, the remarkable continuity of his values, and the breadth of his achievements. After all, as president, he doesn’t have to compete for media or public attention — he can dominate it,” said Abrams, a partner at Seven Letter.

“As the excitement of the Trump transition and year-end funding fight continues on Capitol Hill, President Biden is actively bolstering his record by using the final stretch to make progress on his core priorities,” Abrams said.

Biden has attracted such attention — although not for the most positive reasons.

He caused another uproar among Democrats when he announced he would pardon his son Hunter Biden after months of insisting he would not do so.

The move sparked “disgust” among Democrats and “utter” anger at Biden World as a whole, sources told The Hill.

This was in addition to feelings many Democrats already had about Biden, namely that he should have decided not to run for re-election or should have dropped out of the 2024 race earlier; Vice President Harris only had about 100 days to run against Trump before he lost significantly to him.

Democrats had an exciting year overall, between losing the White House and Senate and failing to flip the House.

Ivan Zapien, a former Democratic National Committee official, described the year-end sentiment as focused less on Biden and more on general disappointment among Democrats.

“Losing is no fun, and I think you can see that across the spectrum of the Democratic Party it’s no fun,” Zapien said. “I wouldn’t call it Biden fatigue – it’s more of a ‘well, this sucks, rest up for the next one’ feeling.”

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