WASHINGTON — A combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Republican Party boycott of normal political engagement has brought to a halt President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better economic recovery agenda.

A crippling freeze has settled in on the president’s aggressive and costly plan to combat destructive climate change and rekindle federal aid to American working families during the double-barreled domestic crisis.

For now, Biden he has his hands full with a recalcitrant Republican Party that has handed him the worst time of his young presidency. After achieving a popular physical infrastructure repair bill, he has failed to pass new voting rights bills or adequately address record-high inflation.

In the current debate over our elections system, his voice at times has been confusing or muted. He has failed to budge two Democratic senators blocking his proposal to bounce back from the Trump years of economic lockdown. Nor has he adequately addressed the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, which magnifies internal divisions.

Biden has made conscientious efforts to put the country back on a constructive course. But Trump and the Grand Old Party he has captured have worked overtime bucking Biden, in advance of an expected attempt to regain the Oval Office in 2024.

Biden’s long reluctance to confront Trump directly has taken a toll on his own approval ratings in public opinion polls. They have slipped to well under 50 percent in his first year as president, leaving a damaging impression of political weakness.

In recent days, he finally has cast off reticence with attacks on Trump by name as a destructive force. He has repeatedly cited Trump’s serial lying in peddling the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was rigged against him. The charge is at the heart of his “Stop the Steal” campaign for a threatened comeback in 2024.

Up to now, Trump’s hold on the Republican Party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan has sustained his political credibility. But Biden’s sudden decision to take on Trump directly could erode that grip as next year’s critical midterm congressional elections approach.

Many Republicans seeking reelection to Congress, and others running for the first time with Trump’s endorsement, will be keeping sharp eyes on the new direct clash between the former president and the man who defeated him in 2020. Biden has made a point of repeatedly referring to Trump as “the defeated former president” as a way of reminding voters who beat him then.

Indeed, Biden is well aware that a major reason he was elected in 2020 was the fact he was not Donald Trump. In making that election a clear referendum for or against Trump, Biden sold himself as a preferable alternative. He beat the former New York real estate tycoon by 7 million popular votes and by 74 votes in the Electoral College.

Biden became the 46th president when Trump tried and failed to persuade then Vice President Mike Pence, presiding over certification of the Electoral College vote count, to falsely declare him the winner. The next time around, Biden’s 2020 running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, would be certifying the Electoral College count, to Biden’s obvious relief.

His immediate challenge now is to offer more than just a second escape route from Trump. Being more directly confrontational could encourage more public confidence in Joe Biden as a thoroughly experienced public servant who regards the presidency as more than a narcissistic showplace for his ego, as Donald Trump so deplorably treats it.

Jules Witcover’s latest book is “The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power,” published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at juleswitcover@comcast.net.

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