This is something no Democrat could have imagined in their worst nightmare after the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021: four years later, Joe Biden has a lower approval rating than then-outgoing President Donald Trump at the time.
On the two major polling aggregator sites, RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight, President Biden’s approval rating stands at 38.8 per cent and 36.1 per cent, respectively. There are only a couple new approval polls that are expected to come out in the last week of his presidency, so these numbers are unlikely to change by any significant measure. By comparison, President Trump left office with a 41.1 per cent approval rating according to RCP, and 38.6 per cent according to 538.
The incumbent POTUS’s disapproval stands at a whopping 56 per cent in the RCP aggregate, and 56.2 per cent in the 538 aggregate. Clearly, the majority of Americans reject his performance in the Oval Office.
However, President Biden most likely will outperform his predecessor-turned-successor in his last Gallup approval rating, typically viewed as the gold standard for measuring presidential support. Gallup’s final poll for President Trump showed just 34 per cent support for him in January 2021. Their final poll on President Biden is yet to come out, but their December 2024 numbers stood at 39 per cent for him. The average approval ratings for the two most recent POTUS’s first terms, however, are virtually identical. President Trump averaged a 41-per-cent approval rating by Gallup, while President Biden is currently averaging 42 per cent, but his final poll may very well knock it down a point. This is the case while President Biden has always received incomparably more positive coverage by the mainstream media than Donald Trump.
President Biden was historically despised by his own party.
In July 2024 he was publicly pressured by other prominent Democrat politicians to drop out of his re-election race, despite President Biden repeatedly voicing his intention to stay in. Thus, he became only the second President in US history not to stand for re-election despite being eligible according to the 22nd Amendment after Lyndon B Johnson in 1968. He was replaced by his Vice President, Kamala Harris on top of the Democratic ticket, who went on to lose the election to Donald Trump.
‘Clearly, the majority of Americans reject President Biden’s performance in the Oval Office’
Biden’s first (and only) term was marred by high inflation, high energy prices, foreign policy failures, new wars abroad; as well as constant questioning of his diminished mental capacities. To further damage his legacy, he decided to give a blanket pardon to his son Hunter Biden for any illegal activities he had done or may have done in the past decade, despite the fact that, during his ill-fated campaign, he repeatedly stated that he would not pardon him for the crimes he was convicted of.
A December survey by the British polling firm J L Partners also found that American voters rank President Biden as the worst Commander-in-Chief in modern history.
In the meantime, President Trump’s popularity is surging. A new poll by Emerson puts his net favourability at plus 10 points; with 52 per cent of Americans having a favourable view of him and only 42 per cent having an unfavourable view of him.
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