President Biden is reportedly struggling to raise the requisite funds to open his own presidential library, as he enjoys fewer perks and a lower profile than some of his predecessors. In the next two years, Mr. Biden’s staff expect that he will struggle to raise more than $12 million for the project. 

Mr. Biden has had an especially difficult post-presidency not just because of his poor approval ratings, but because of his age. Many Democrats have spent the better part of the last year bashing him for mounting his ill-fated re-election campaign, and he is now spending his time doing fewer speaking engagements, bringing in less income, and having less time to tackle major challenges as an ex-president, given his age. 

Now, his donors seem to believe that he is not worth the investment. 

According to the New York Times, the fund to build Mr. Biden’s library is expected to raise just over $11 million by the end of 2027 — far below the $200 million Mr. Biden’s team has wanted. In an attempt to kick-start the fundraising, Mr. Biden is hosting a meet-and-green with potential donors in Washington, D.C. on Monday night, hosted by a Democratic Party megadonor and former American ambassador to Brazil, Elizabeth Frawley Bagley. 

Some major party donors, however, have little interest in doing anything with Mr. Biden again. “The Biden staff, they ruined any type of good library for him,” John Morgan, the billionaire founder of a personal injury law firm, told the Times. “He’ll be lucky to have a bookmobile.”

Mr. Biden has had a pared-down version of what most former presidents get to experience. Part of that is due to Mr. Biden being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer earlier this year, which required him to go through intense treatment over the summer, though when he was able to travel and give speeches, it is clear he was not as in-demand as past presidents typically were. 

His first public event after leaving the White House was at a conference for the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled in Chicago, which saw him focusing on things like Social Security. The only Democratic Party event he has headlined since becoming a former president was a dinner held by Omaha, Nebraska Democrats in November. 

It was Vice President Kamala Harris, not her former boss, who was a keynote speaker at this year’s annual Democratic National Committee meeting last week. At that event, Ms. Harris seemed to be trying out new, more populist messaging ahead of another run for the White House — an even more dramatic sign that she has a future in the party while Mr. Biden may be quietly kept away from the spotlight for good. 

“We must be honest that for so many, the American dream has become more of a myth than reality,” Ms. Harris, who has spent months on a book tour criticizing Mr. Biden’s decision to run in 2024, told fellow Democrats on Friday in California. 

Mr. Biden’s inability to raise funds for his library may be especially pronounced as his own former boss, President Obama, is set to open his presidential center on the South Side of Chicago early next year. Mr. Obama was able to raise more than $800 million for his library and the campus upon which it will sit. 

President Clinton, too, was drastically outraising Mr. Biden in library funds all the way back in the 1990s and earlier 2000s. Mr. Clinton was able to complete his presidential center in Arkansas less than four years after leaving office with a budget of $165 million. President George W. Bush — widely considered the most unpopular president of this center — was able to raise more than $250 million for his library in Texas.