Donald Trump often claimed credit for things he didn’t do.

Now, that Joe Biden is doing something a little different: He’s so keen to make political points for good news about COVID that he’s snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Biden used his State of the Union address to call for “Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again.”

First of all, this is insulting. We HAVE been working, and if Biden hasn’t noticed, he hasn’t been paying attention. Second, how and where employees work should be a decision made by those workers and their employers — not by government. Third, it’s just plain clueless.

In fact, it’s one of the most clueless things Biden has said. Maybe he’s living in the past. (Most of our downtowns haven’t been great in a very long time.) And maybe he hasn’t noticed, but...

1. We’re in the midst of soaring gas prices. Now is NOT the time to be putting more gas in our tanks, or for employers to be placing another financial burden on strapped workers.

2. Spewing more emissions into the air while sounding the alarm against global warming makes absolutely no sense.

3. Many employees actually prefer working from home and are more productive there.

4. Working from home saves employers money they would otherwise be spending to rent office space and pay for utilities — money that could be spent to hire more workers or increase salaries for those already on the payroll.

Biden obviously wants to make things look “normal” again in the wake of COVID. But gas prices are anything but normal, and some of the pre-COVID normal (accelerating climate change, the aggravation of rush-hour traffic heading to and from those offices) was anything but optimal.

In this age, though, making political points appears to be a higher priority than anything else. For Republicans. For Democrats.

But not for independent thinkers and problem-solvers. We need more of those. 

Stephen H. Provost is a former journalist and the author of more than 40 books. He works from home. He likes it.