Just when it seemed like President Joe Biden’s approval rating couldn’t get any lower, it has: only 33% of the country approves of Biden’s performance, according to a new poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College.
Remarking that Biden is “hemorrhaging support,” The New York Times noted that the president is also losing ground among his own party: 64% of Democrats want the party to back a different presidential candidate in the next election. Biden is particularly unpopular among young adults: 94% of Democratic respondents under 30 said they would prefer their party to throw its weight behind someone else in 2024, according to the poll of 849 registered voters that was conducted July 5-7.
However, when a hypothetical rematch between former President Donald Trump and Biden was presented in the same survey, Democratic respondents strongly preferred Biden, with 92% saying they’d vote for him over Trump. Among all respondents, Biden narrowly edged Trump out. Should the two face off again, 44% of respondents said they’d cast their ballot for Biden, 41% for Trump, the poll found.
Black Americans remain Biden’s strongest supporters, with 62% approving of his job performance, according to The New York Times. But, when asked about the 2024 presidential race, “slightly more” Black Democrats want to see a different Democratic nominee that those who would back Biden.
Feelings about the economy are likely to blame for Biden’s low approval ratings, with the economy and jobs topping the list of respondents’ top concerns, along with the cost of living and inflation, The New York Times reported.
Reuters’ presidential approval polling tracker notes that the economy remains respondents’ top concern for the 43rd consecutive week. Democrats ranked crime as the second highest concern, and the environment came in third. Immigration took the second spot among Republicans; their third foremost concern was crime.
Reuters’ poll for the week of July 7-11 put Biden’s approval rating at 36%, which is slightly higher than what The New York Times/Siena College poll found. Both numbers track with a recent poll conducted by Deseret News and the Hinckley Institute of Politics that found that only 34% of Utahns approve of Biden’s performance.
In addition to being unimpressed with Biden’s performance, voters of all stripes are unified on another issue: Most think the country is headed in the wrong direction. Over 75% of respondents said that they think the United States is on the wrong track, The New York Times reported, adding that the number pointed to “a pervasive sense of pessimism that spans every corner of the country, every age range and racial group, cities, suburbs and rural areas, as well as both political parties.”
Biden’s current approval rating puts him more or less on par with Trump, whose approval rating bottomed out at 33%, according to Reuters data, or 29%, according to Pew Research Center. Either way, both Trump and Biden are among the least popular presidents in modern history, pulling ahead of only Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and both George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush.