President Joe Biden is running for re-election whether Democrats like it or not.

And why not?

He has only one candidate to beat, and that is Donald Trump.

He is also running to stymie Republicans going after him and his family on corruption charges. And to do so, Biden must remain in power as long as possible.

Not only is the Eternal Footman knocking on the door, so is Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the bulldog chairman of the House Oversight Committee, with a handful of subpoenas in his hand.

So old Joe will hang in there as long as possible.  As president, Biden controls the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI. As ex-president he does not.

Even a hint or announcement that he is not seeking re-election would instantly make him a lame duck with diminished authority over events that could lead to his impeachment at the hands of the Republicans in the House.

So, he has to run, or at least give of the impression that he is running, to hold off, in his mind, the barbarians led by Trump who are pounding at the gate.

As of now Trump will be the Republican nominee for president. Biden will be the Democratic nominee. Everybody else is window dressing.

No Democrat is going to successfully rip the Democrat Party nomination away from Biden either in the primaries or at the Democrat Party convention in Chicago in August.

The same is true for Trump. No Republican challenger will replace Trump as the leading GOP candidate in the primaries or deny him the Republican Party nomination at the GOP party convention in Milwaukee in July. At best, the  GOP primary challengers to Trump are running for second place or looking for a job.

The various primary challengers to Biden, both Democrat and third party, are not even challengers, but candidates running in anticipation (or hope) that Biden, for one reason or another, will throw in the towel.

Like it or not — and most do not — the pair will square off for another go around in 2024, pitting an 81-year-old meandering president who cannot find his way off the stage to a 77-year-old mouthy challenger who will not get off the stage.

This 2024 rematch will continue to divide the country. But the writing on the wall indicates that the country is so down on Biden than it will lean toward Trump in 2024 despite Trump’s Democrat-induced legal problems.

The more the Democrats politicize the U.S. justice system going after Trump the more he rises in the polls.

The latest example is that sham of a civil trial over Trump’s financial practices brought about by Letitia James, the headline seeker attorney general of New York, before a would-be comedian of a judge.

This New York railroading of Trump does not take into account the series of federal charges he faces brought about by Biden’s U.S. Justice Department, all in an attempt to wreck Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

For Trump his court appearances are like campaign events. The more the Democrat-controlled justice system goes after him, the stronger he gets.

Democratic attempts to smother Trump are like trying to put out an electric vehicle fire. Pour all the water you want on it, and it still won’t go out.

Unlike Biden, who has the Justice Department acting like his personal law firm while it goes after Trump, Trump meanwhile is millions of dollars out of pocket paying lawyers to protect him.  The swamp may drain Trump before Trump gets another crack at draining the swamp.

It is a strange era in America. On one hand you have a Democratic president in control of a Democrat-run U.S. Justice Department going after Republican Trump, while you have a Republican controlled U.S House of Representatives going after Democrat Biden.

And while Trump and his sons and daughter were subpoenaed to testify at his civil trial in New York, Joe Biden’s son Hunter and Joe’s brother James have been subpoenaed to testify before Comer’s committee investing Chinese payoffs to Joe Biden.

So, you can see why Joe Biden wants to remain in power.

Besides, Joe Biden needs another four years to complete the destruction of the country.

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.