Don’t expect Biden to get a political honeymoon

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George W. Bush didn’t get much of a honeymoon because his election, via the Supreme Court, didn’t give him much of a mandate. Donald Trump didn’t have much of a honeymoon either, but that was largely of his own making given he used his first weeks in office to issue extremely controversial executive orders like the travel ban on Muslim-majority countries.

But less than 50 days until Joe Biden is sworn in as president, it is becoming increasingly clear that he won’t be getting much of a honeymoon either. For Biden, the reasons are largely structural.

As it stands, it would be a big upset if Democrats are able to win both US Senate runoff elections in Georgia next month. If they don’t win both, Republicans will get to control the agenda in the Senate, including whether to take up cabinet nominations and to stifle any items that Biden wanted to quickly pass.

Further, Biden faces a US House that saw the Democratic majority get slimmed down in his own election, the first time an incoming president didn’t pick up control in either the House or Senate since the 1880s. Also, there is a now a 6-3 conservative majority on the US Supreme Court that Biden will have to deal with if he gets aggressive on executive orders.

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To be sure, before Biden can do anything bold on tax rates, structural racism, or climate change, he must immediately address the twin challenges of a global pandemic and an economy in rough shape, crises that have exposed inequities in plain sight. There is a looming housing crisis and an education crisis brought on by the pandemic that many haven’t even begun to get their heads around.

In some ways, Biden’s job on COVID will be harder than anything Trump ever had. Trump simply had to model good behavior and marshal the full resources of the federal government were being used to come up with a solution. (He arguably failed on both counts.)

But it will largely be on Biden to implement the distribution of a vaccine to the general public, including a campaign to convince people to take it and then convince them they can go back to normal, or at least a new normal.

That’s a heavy lift and Biden could use a honeymoon period, but he likely won’t get one for his COVID response nor for the team he picks.

So far, all but one of Biden’s cabinet-level picks have been praised by both parties, though that’s no guarantee of Senate confirmation. And if that one that is criticized, Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget, is shot down, Biden will be just fine.

More than the Republicans, Biden may need to watch his left flank even during what would have been the traditional honeymoon period. Progressive groups have made it clear that they didn’t buy into the Biden agenda but just wanted Trump out. Now that Biden is in, they say they will be vocal in trying to move Biden to the left.

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As one leader of a progressive group told NBC News, “There’s not going to be a honeymoon because there was no wedding.”

James Pindell can be reached at james.pindell@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jamespindell.