The Official Joe Biden Facelift Tier List
Ranking the president's many different looks over his half-century in public life.
One strange thing about Joe Biden’s presidency has been his administration’s reluctance to do Oval Office addresses. I know that they’re rare, and intentionally so, but it’s not as if he’s presided over some shortage of crises during his tenure. He’s had to deal with everything from the vaccine rollout to the fall of Afghanistan to the invasion of Ukraine to Dobbs since he took office, and yet he’s only given a primetime speech behind the Resolute desk twice. There was one last June that took credit for the debt ceiling bill and another last October to respond to the start of the war in Gaza. That’s it. At least as far as the White House is concerned, nothing else has happened during his presidency to warrant the full attention of the country.
This unwillingness to use the bully pulpit, along with a media strategy that eschews all but the most favorable possible media appearances, has had a tremendous impact on Biden’s public image. Politically, it has been entirely pernicious. All his absence has ended up doing is convincing huge swaths of previously favorable voters that he is incapable and not in control, leading them to switch to Trump or tune out of politics entirely. Culturally speaking, however, I am a little more appreciative of it. With Biden’s profile so low, it seems that many disengaged Americans go extensive periods of time without seeing their president. So when Biden does do his rare high-profile appearances, they can often be the first time that some people have seen him in weeks, months, or even years.
This has allowed for some incredible moments.
As I streamed Biden’s Oval Office address last October, I was also watching social media closely to see how people were reacting to it. More than anything else, I was struck by how the president’s looks dominated the conversation. People were absolutely convinced that he had recently undergone plastic surgery, and they thought it looked awful. And the thing is: they’re probably right. Biden’s appearance over his more than half-century in public life has been extensively well-documented, and it’s abundantly clear he’s had some work done—enough to make him look like an entirely different person across different decades.
Since this topic of discussion will only become more salient as low-engagement voters begin to tune into the race, I’ve decided to compile what is probably the first official history of Biden’s looks over the years. Which were the best, relative to his age? Which were the worst? How in the world did we get to this point? Read below to find out.
Absolute Trash Tier
Joe Biden’s Current Look (Approx. 2023-present)
As a way of gauging reader interest for this article, I posted the image above on Twitter. Below are some immediate reactions:
“he doesnt look like he has blood”
“i kind of understand where the ‘biden has been replaced’ conspiracy guys are coming from now”
“biden looks like an animatronic they fucked his shit up soo bad”
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