Biden is lying low in St. Croix during the holiday week

As wars rage in Gaza and Ukraine, migrants flow illegally into the United States in record numbers and an intense 2024 campaign season looms, President Biden is keeping a low profile.

Here on tropical St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, where Mr. Biden; the first lady, Jill Biden; and their granddaughter Natalie are spending New Year’s week in a secluded oceanfront villa overlooking the turquoise Caribbean, while the president remains largely out of the spotlight.

On Saturday, Mr. Biden made his first public appearance, venturing out to attend Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Christiansted, the largest city in St. Croix. He and Dr. Biden later recorded an interview with Ryan Seacrest, which aired on New Year’s Eve as part of ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.” In the evening, the president and first lady dined at Too Chez, one of the island’s best restaurants, before unveiling his New Year’s resolutions.

“To come back next year,” Mr. Biden said.

Republicans have roundly criticized Biden’s island vacation, which began just a day after he returned to the White House after spending Christmas with family at Camp David.

Several lawmakers accused the president failure to tackle the migrant wave along the southern US border by taking away time. And on Thursday, when the White House announced in the morning that there would be no public events for Biden that day as temperatures hovered in the 80s on St. Croix, an arm of the Republican National Committee pounced.

“Illegal immigrants pour across the open southern border by the tens of thousands every day.” writes the RNC Research group on the social media siteadding that Mr. Biden “on his second vacation in a week — called it a day before noon.”

Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University, said presidential vacations are almost always denounced by the opposing party.

But even a commander-in-chief needs to unwind sometimes, Mr. Zelizer noted, and these days no president is ever truly disconnected.

“It’s not like the president, like a lot of us, goes on vacation and just sits on the beach or something like that,” he said. “They come with their entire presidential apparatus and are surrounded by their advisors.”

A White House official described Mr. Biden’s trip as a working vacation. Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, accompanied the president to St. Croix and has briefed him several times since his arrival, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s schedule.

On Friday, Mr. Biden condemned Russia for launching what he called the largest airstrike on Ukraine since the war began, issuing a statement warning that President Vladimir V. Putin “must be stopped.” Asked on Saturday whether he planned to speak with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine after Russia’s latest attacks, Mr Biden replied: “I speak to him regularly.”

He also called on Congress on Friday to approve national security funding for Ukraine and Israel, which is tied to negotiations over border and immigration policies. White House officials said the president was also closely monitoring those conversations.

Many St. Croix residents said that even though Mr. Biden remained largely out of the public eye this year, they appreciated that his visits have helped highlight the history of the island, which was once home to the founder Alexander Hamilton. They describe it as a quirky, warm-hearted island where stray cats are well fed in five-star resorts. In Lin Manuel-Miranda’s musical “Hamilton,” St. Croix plays merely the “forgotten place in the Caribbean” from which a young Hamilton pulled himself out of poverty.

Mr. Biden’s visit is his second to St. Croix as president, but the Bidens have traveled there more than a dozen times over the years.

“He loves St. Croix, and we are excited to have him here,” said Leonore Gillette, a retired teacher who has lived on the island for 45 years.

“We certainly appreciate the infusion of activity,” said Nadine Bougouneau, another longtime resident who works at The Buccaneer, a resort that was packed to the rafters with Secret Service agents and members of the media traveling with Mr. Biden. The president played with his grandson Hunter on the resort’s 18-hole golf course last year.

Several people, including the governor of the Virgin Islands, fondly remembered Mr. Biden’s visits before he was president — and the Secret Service did not block miles of roads for security. At the time, locals and tourists said they would encounter him while biking, jogging or getting coffee at Ziggy’s, an island market and gas station on the east side.

“We feel like he’s a Virgin Islander,” Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said.

“Before he was president, I was out on the town at night and I saw him in a restaurant, and I was sitting with people and I said, ‘That’s Joe Biden.’ And people said, ‘No way,'” he recalled.

Today, the governor said, Mr. Biden’s visit gave him a chance to highlight some of the issues facing the U.S. Virgin Islands, which rely heavily on tourism and are still recovering from Hurricanes Irma and Mary.

Mr. Bryan identified the biggest challenge facing the islands as a requirement to fund 10 percent of the $15 billion in federal hurricane reconstruction assistance. He said the Virgin Islands’ money and ability to restore its water systems and other major projects could be at risk because the government cannot pay the $1.5 billion. The Virgin Islands, home to about 87,000 people, has an annual budget of $1.2 billion.

Still, Mr. Bryan said, he does not see Mr. Biden’s New Year’s visit as the best time to make his case to the president.

“Honestly, I would have preferred if he wasn’t president because he spent more time with me,” he joked, adding that this year I’m really trying to stay away from him so he has a chance to to rest. he will need it to participate in these elections.”

According to December, Mr. Biden will enter 2024 with a persistently low approval rating of 39 percent Gallup poll, the worst of all modern presidents seeking re-election. Mr. Zelizer said this makes the policy challenges Biden faces in the Middle East and Ukraine — and with Congress — all the more difficult.

“All this will be waiting for him when he returns to Washington, and he knows it,” Mr. Zelizer said. He added: “It will be a difficult year.”