What’s next for Joe and Jill Biden?
President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden are leaving the White House on January 20, marking the end of the president’s 50 years in politics.
But Biden, 82, insists he’s not quite ready to retreat into a slow retirement just yet. In interviews, the president has indicated he’s still got work to do to improve Americans’ lives. Jill Biden, 73, has similarly dedicated her life to others through education, but she has kept quiet about her next chapter after the White House.
What is certain is that Bidens will almost certainly return to their homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where they spend time with family.
Here is what else could be in store for Joe and Jill Biden.
Academic endeavors
The president has not fully explained what he plans to do after leaving the White House but has hinted he would like to continue working on foreign and domestic policy.
“Although I’m leaving, you’re stuck with me, I’m not going away,” Biden told The View in September.
“Because there are so many other things I want to do in terms of the Biden Institute Penn on foreign policy [and] the Biden Institute in Delaware on domestic policy to keep the things going that we started, and I think we can get it done,” he said.
The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement is a think tank focused on foreign policy based in Washington, D.C. It was established within the University of Pennsylvania and named after the president.
Biden used the institute as his main office in D.C. after leaving the White House as vice president in 2017. The office made the news during Biden’s administration in November 2022 when attorneys for the president discovered classified documents in a locked closet of the office. The documents were turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
The president said he would also like to continue working with his other academic center, the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration, which is an independent entity at the University of Delaware in Newark.
Jill Biden has not unveiled her plans after leaving the White House. It’s unclear if Jill Biden will return to teaching – a profession she dedicated most of her adult life to. She became the first first lady to hold a paying job outside of the White House when she continued teaching while Biden was in office.
Jill Biden announced in December she had taught her last semester at Northern Virginia Community College, but did not specify if she would return to teaching elsewhere, or if she was officially retiring.
Presidential Library
Biden is expected to begin building a presidential library after he leaves office, though he has not decided on its location or who will represent him in doing so.
The president told USA Today that he hopes to build his library in Delaware where he lives and potentially with one of the universities that house the Biden Institute – the University of Delaware or the University of Pennsylvania.
“I’ve talked to former presidents – apparently building the library is a gigantic undertaking,” Biden told the newspaper.
There has not been any formal announcement regarding the presidential library. Libraries cost millions of dollars to build and require a dedicated team to help establish them.
Though two of Biden’s close aides are expected to take the lead on planning the library, according to Axios, Biden has not decided who will represent him in the endeavor.
The Bidens also partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, to assist them in policy work after leaving the White House in 2017.
Whether it’s ultimately “CAA or other folks, I honest to God haven’t decided,” Biden said.
Family
The Bidens will likely return home to spend more time with their children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchild.
Throughout their time in the White House, the Bidens have displayed an unwavering commitment to their family. The president and first lady have carved out time in their busy schedules to spend time in Delaware with their family throughout Biden’s presidency.
They hosted their granddaughter, Naomi Biden’s, wedding in 2022 on the South Lawn of the White House. Every year, they have taken a trip to honor Biden’s late wife and infant daughter, who died in a car crash in 1972. Biden has often also invoked the memory of his late son, Beau Biden, during speeches.
The Bidens most recently took a short trip to California, amid disastrous and devastating wildfires, to meet their first great-grandchild.
Notably, when the Biden’s son Hunter was on trial for three federal gun-related charges, Jill Biden attended almost every day of the trial. She made time to support her son even while assuming her duties to represent the U.S. alongside her husband at a D-Day ceremony in France. She flew from France back to Wilmington, Delaware in a day in order to be in the courtroom.
When Hunter Biden was convicted the president cleared his schedule for the day to support his son. Biden later, controversially, utilized his presidential power to pardon his son, despite promising earlier not to do so.
The Independent asked the White House for comment.