A record low for both his presidency and any president in the previous 15 years, just one-third of American citizens say they are satisfied with President Biden’s job performance.
In an ABC News/Ipsos poll done from January 4–8, only 33% of respondents said they approved of Biden’s performance. This is a decrease from the last poll in September 2023, when 37% of respondents said they approved of his job. The percentage of people who disapprove of Biden has increased to 58% from 56% in September.
According to ABC News, the approval rating is at its lowest since George W. Bush’s administration in 2006–2008.
Compared to former President Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, Biden, who is seeking reelection, has a lower approval rating.
When asked if they “looking back” approved or disapproved of how Trump conducted himself while in office, 41% of respondents indicated they approved, down from 48% in September. The percentage of people disapproving of Trump has increased to 53% from 49% in September.
When asked if Trump and Biden were, respectively, “honest and trustworthy,” Biden led Trump by fifteen points. The percentage of respondents who indicated that Biden fits the criteria was 41%, which remained constant from the May 2023 poll, and the percentage who said the same about Trump was 26%, which is a decrease from 33% in the same poll.
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When asked if the candidates had the mental acuity and physical health to serve effectively, Trump outperformed Biden; yet, both suffered a decline in their polling ratings from May of last year.
Among those surveyed, 28% of respondents believe Biden has sufficient mental acuity, down from 32% in the previous year, and 28% believe he is in enough physical health, down from 33% in the previous year. In comparison to Biden’s polls, Trump’s 47 percent believe he has acceptable mental acuity and his 57 percent who believe he has excellent enough physical health are far better than Biden.
There may be some positive news for Biden’s campaign in the fact that the disapproval rating of his economic management has decreased. His approval of the economy has increased to 31% from 30% in September, while his dissatisfaction has decreased by 8 percentage points. It stands at 56%, down from 64% in September.
It appears that more Americans are undecided about their opinions of Biden’s economic management. Merely 4–6% of respondents in a series of surveys taken between September 2021 and September 2023 ever skipped or stated “no opinion” in answer to economic approval. That percentage more than doubled to 14% in January 2024.
But in the past, the Biden team has cautioned against focusing too much on polls, pointing out that the election season is still extremely early.
The study included 2,228 adult participants and has a 2.5 percentage point margin of error.