The awesome responsibilities of the presidency can be a heavy weight to shoulder, a lonely burden of ultimate decision-making authority enduringly encapsulated in the words of the iconic sign President Harry Truman kept on his desk in the Oval Office: “The buck stops here.”

President Joe Biden, however, has time and again sought to sidestep the weighty burden of history through the simple expedient of passing the buck for presidential choices gone awry to his predecessor.

With Biden’s job approval rating remaining well underwater, his administration is redoubling efforts to blame its perceived failures on former President Trump — a practice dating back to its botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 and stretching right up to the present, with its much-panned responses to the Chinese spy balloon and the Ohio toxic train derailment.