Joe Biden is leaving office the way he came in — on a cloud of self-delusion and a rancid stench of lies. 

He promised to be a standard-bearer of decency, respecter of norms and the rule of law. 

He portrayed himself as a unifier, pledging to aid the nation in its recuperation following the pandemic, a man known for his integrity and pristine character, which contrasted sharply with his disliked predecessor.

Yet behind closed doors, in the devious recesses of his soul, Joe plotted and planned just two things: self-aggrandizement and vengeance. 

Joe paid lip service to a grab bag of virtuous goals but, really, he was all about himself.

As he has been all his life. 

Hence his Jerry Springer-style family life that he and Jill always have dressed up as the Waltons. 

Now he leaves office as the most unpopular president in history other than Nixon, according to a Gallup poll. 

As he approaches the conclusion of his unsuccessful presidency, he and his partner, Jill, are racing to various engagements, dispensing rehearsed speeches and engaging in sympathetic interviews in a futile attempt to construct a positive “legacy.”

His final address from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening was the culmination of these well-rehearsed performances, filled with falsehoods, self-praise, and elaborate historical quotations penned by others.

The most divisive president in recent memory claimed he had “kept my commitment to be president for all Americans.” 

The president whose administration and deep-state protectors bullied social-media companies into censoring American speech, including in the New York Post, claimed to champion a “free and independent press.” 

Marked by mendacity 

The congenital liar whose career is marked by plagiarism, mendacity and corruption warned of a future in which “the truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.” 

The man whose family raked in millions from selling his influence to shady oligarchs and Chinese Communist Party entities, who just gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to ­George Soros, railed against “dark money.” 

The speech would not have changed a single mind about Biden’s legacy. Nobody is fooled. 

He also released a farewell letter Wednesday, laughably claiming he has left the country “stronger, more prosperous and more secure.” 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

On his watch, America is embroiled in two proxy wars, tens of millions of unvetted illegal immigrants are roaming the country, we just suffered the second worst terrorist attack since 9/11, and inflation has ravaged the middle class. 

The president who weaponized the Justice Department against his political enemies and regularly defamed Donald Trump and his supporters as “fascists” also claimed he was a unifier: “We came together as Americans, and . . . we emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure.” 

Nobody buys it. 

His legacy can be discerned in two special counsel reports out this week: Trump-hunter Jack Smith’s last gasp was to assert that the president-elect would have been convicted if he hadn’t won the election.

Hunter Biden protector-turned-prosecutor David Weiss’ flimsy, 27-page report whitewashed his sham investigation of the first son in Delaware, which would have resulted in zero charges if IRS investigators Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler hadn’t blown the whistle on DOJ obstruction. 

But the American people saw the lawfare and corruption for what it was and rejected Joe Biden at the ballot box. 

Of course, Biden doesn’t see the election results as a rejection of him.

He claimed last week he would have won the election if his party hadn’t pushed him aside. 

Seizing credit 

Vainglorious and small until the bitter end, Biden called a press conference Wednesday to seize personal credit for the hostage deal in Israel, without a mention of Trump, despite Israel and Arab officials alike crediting the president-elect with the breakthrough. 

“If they [the hostages] are not back by the time I get into office, all hell is gonna break out,” Trump had warned Hamas and Iran last month, and sure enough, The Times of Israel reports that Trump hostage negotiator Steve Witkoff has done “more to sway [Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu than outgoing president Joe Biden did in a year.” 

But when a reporter asked Biden how much credit Trump deserves for the deal, he replied: “Well, this is the exact framework that I proposed back in May — exact.” 

So why weren’t the hostages released back then? 

As he was leaving the podium, another reporter asked who should get credit for the deal, “you or Trump?” Biden stopped, turned his head with a smirk and snarled, “Is that a joke?” 

Then he turned on his heels and shuffled out the door. 

It was vintage Biden, a graceless grab for ego gratification that defines his character. 

Yes, legacy is terribly important to Joe and Jill.

It consumes the couple. 

It is a “family project,” as The Washington Post characterized Jill’s attitude in a schmaltzy interview published Wednesday in which she expressed bitterness about former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s role in knifing Joe. 

“We were friends for 50 years. It was disappointing,” Jill said. 

Despite the rancor, she is determined to burnish her own legacy as “a healer who traveled the country to comfort Americans as they emerged from the depths of the pandemic.” 

Her favorite event was a first state dinner for teachers overwhelmed by the pomp and ceremony she turned on.

“It took their breath away,” she says with pride. 

She frets that “people won’t credit Joe for some of his achievements . . . I hope that they remember Joe as a strong, empathetic president with integrity and character. I mean, character really is everything, isn’t it?” 

Yes. Character is destiny. Joe’s is carved in stone now as permanently as the greats on Mount Rushmore whose memory he sullied and who Pelosi laughably mused he might join. 

But legacies can’t be controlled.

They are the sum total of your character, the way you lived your life, the other lives you touched, the character of the children you raised, the judgment of everyone who saw your conduct. 

America sees Joe Biden now for who he is, a one-term failure, a Tammany Hall grifter who sold out his country, an insufferable blowhard whose only claim to fame was that he did more damage than any of his predecessors. 

His term in office was a brief and unfortunate interruption of the truly historic presidency of the man he tried to destroy. 

Joe’s legacy is to be sandwiched by Trump in history.