President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have sunk to 33% as he loses ground within his own party.
FiveThirtyEight’s data analysis shows that Biden’s ratings are tracking just under former President Donald Trump’s before he left office.
Although, in the case of a hypothetical rematch, Biden is the preferred candidate over Trump, as Mya Jaradat reported for the Deseret News. While Trump has yet to announce his candidacy, there is a chance the two could face off again in the 2024 presidential election, even though they are among the least popular presidents in modern history.
Who was the lowest polled U.S. president?
The Roper Center, an organization focused on public opinion research at Cornell University, cumulated polling highs and lows for 15 presidents, starting with former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected in 1942.
Among those 15 presidents, the president who has had the lowest approval rating is former President George W. Bush, with a 19% rating in a survey carried out by the American Research Group in 2008.
Here are the six other presidents with the lowest approval ratings following Bush:
- Harry S. Truman polled at 22% in 1952.
- In 1974, Richard Nixon had a 23% rating.
- Jimmy Carter polled at 28% five years later.
- In January 2021, Trump had a 29% approval rating.
- George H.W. Bush polled the same as Trump in 1992.
- Biden makes the list with his 33% rating.
Who was the highest polled U.S. president?
George W. Bush holds the record for the lowest approval ratings, according to the Roper Center. But this former president is also the only one to have a rating above 90%.
In a poll conducted by ABC News in October 2001, he received an approval rating of 92%. The closest to come to this number was George H.W. Bush, who polled at 89% in 1991.
Other presidents who had high approval ratings are:
- Truman had an 87% rating in 1945.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt had an approval rating of 84% in 1942.
- Polling in 1961 found John F. Kennedy had an 83% approval rating.
- Lyndon B. Johnson had an 80% approval rating in 1964.
- In 2009, Barack Obama had a 76% approval rating.