IT was George W Bush who succinctly summed up Donald Trump’s inaugural address four years ago. “That was some weird shit,” Bush is said to have quipped after listening to Trump talk of “American carnage”.

Like most of us even Bush had no idea just then how much more “weirdness” – and come to think of it “carnage” – was coming down the chute once Trump was firmly ensconced in the White House.

Yesterday, as Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, the contrast between his and Trump’s speech could not have been starker. Now, as Trump’s exit closes a chapter in one of the most controversial and tumultuous periods in American politics, it falls on Biden to try to genuinely make America great again.

But who among us would want to be in his shoes right now? Can ever there have been a more daunting set of challenges confronting a US president outside of wartime? For Joe Biden, his administration and all of America the stakes too could not be higher.

Just pause for a moment and imagine what might happen should he get things wrong or seriously fail to deliver. It’s hard right now to imagine, but America might so easily find itself in an even darker place than it has been of late.

Some veteran America watchers remain convinced that this yet will be the longer-term scenario given the restive and substantial numbers nationwide among the 74 million voters who cast their ballot for Trump in last November’s election.

Those 25,000 National Guard personnel that locked down Washington yesterday during the inauguration were another sobering reminder of the politically charged times and the high stakes that currently confront America. Yesterday, you could just imagine authoritarian leaders across the world taking notes on the propaganda uses such a security clampdown in Washington handed them.

If Trump ensured one thing before his departure it was in lighting the blue touch paper on an incendiary pack of issues both home and away that Biden will have to contend with.

Even Trump’s pardoning of his pals, including the sinister and malevolent Steve Bannon, one senses is both a way to cover his tracks while keeping open the possibility of stirring more political tumult in the future.

That all of America will be watching closely as to how Biden copes with such a toxic legacy is obvious. According to an NBC News poll released just 24 hours before yesterday’s inauguration 73% of voters say America is on the wrong track, and 53% say they are worried and pessimistic about the nation’s future.

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LIKEWISE, US allies and rivals alike around the world will scrutinise the new president’s every move looking for opportunity and weakness.

“Sleepy Joe”, as Trump liked to call Biden, while other critics too questioned the 78- year old’s capacity to keep up with the demands and pace once in office.

But if early signs are anything to go by then Biden, the old political hand that he is, appears to have recognised the need for a sense of urgency and clear-cut decision-making in pushing through policies to reassure his fellow Americans.

He knows he can’t afford to be seen dithering or hesitating thus allowing political rivals, domestic and foreign, from taking aim and exploiting any uncertainty. No sooner had he taken his oath of office yesterday than he was signing a barrage of executive orders to reverse some of Trump’s most controversial policies in areas ranging from climate change to immigration.

But in a country where more than 400,000 people have died from the coronavirus and nearly 11m Americans are receiving unemployment benefits, these two challenges will be uppermost in Biden’s mind. His aim to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and proposal for raising emergency jobless benefits to $400 per week will doubtless be music to the ears of many Americans right now facing economic hardship.

Likewise, many will be encouraged by him looking to Congress to pass another $1 trillion Covid-19 relief package after calling the previous efforts a “down payment”.

Biden has also pledged to oversee administering 100m vaccinations in his first 100 days in office, which transition officials say is still a reachable goal even though the Trump administration’s promised roll-out of the vaccines has been much slower than expected.

President-elect Biden often has talked about the need to use the first 100 days, which have typically been a honeymoon period for new presidents, to make significant progress on the challenges facing the country.

WHETHER one agrees or disagrees with Biden’s politics he is a past master at reaching across the Senate floor and cutting deals with the Republicans. That said, finding bipartisan cooperation early in his administration may prove elusive and getting some of these most pressing measures through will test even this veteran negotiator.

Back in 1945 when another US former vice-president Harry S Truman finally became president it was his misfortune to inherit the myriad political problems that had emerged from the carnage of the Second World War. This was the man who among other things implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and established Nato along with the Truman Doctrine to contain Soviet expansion during the Cold War.

In a famous press conference of the time Truman told journalists: “I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me.”

I can’t help wondering if Joe Biden is familiar with those remarks and feelings of his long past Democratic presidential predecessor. For heaven knows, America’s latest leader must be acutely conscious of the burden he carries the daunting task ahead and hopes that rest on him.

Speaking himself at a memorial service for coronavirus victims on Tuesday before his inauguration yesterday Biden made a remark of his own that history is sure to test and reflect on.

“To heal, we must remember,” he said. “It is important to do that as a nation.”

Whether the United States heals under its new leader remains to be seen.

With Biden it will not be for want of trying, even if the stakes could not be higher for the president himself and those Americans that he was sworn in yesterday to serve.