Joe Biden’s approval rating reaches a new low

Joe Biden won the White House last year with 52.3% of the two-party popular vote, a higher share than either Barack Obama managed in 2012 or Donald Trump in 2016 (his opponent Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but also with a smaller share). He was even more popular during his first few weeks in office: his net approval rating—the difference between the share of voters who support and oppose him—was plus 14 percentage points, according to The Economist’s weekly poll with YouGov. But after just seven months in office, his approval ratings slipped below 50%. Since then, things have only got worse.

According to this week’s poll, Mr Biden’s net approval rating is a dismal minus nine points. Although this is better than Mr Trump’s score of -15 at this point in his presidency, it is far below Mr Obama’s plus six. And support for Mr Biden is deteriorating rapidly. His net approval rating has fallen by more than ten points since his 200th day in office, just over two months ago. Mr Obama’s fell by only four, and Mr Trump’s by just one, over the corresponding period (see left-hand chart).

It is hard to know exactly what accounts for the slump. Some pin the blame on the surge in covid-19 cases and deaths over the summer, fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant. After all, voters elected Mr Biden in large part because he was seen as better equipped than Mr Trump to tackle the pandemic. Others think Democrats have become disaffected with the president because he has failed to pass key parts of his agenda, including a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a multi-trillion-dollar social-spending package, which would fund health care, education, climate change and other progressive priorities.

Our polling suggests a different story entirely. In fact, voters strongly approve of Mr Biden’s handling of the coronavirus. And his support among Democrats has held fairly steady, even as his net approval among political independents has fallen by 15 percentage points, from minus 10 points to minus 25, over the past two months. A more likely reason for the president’s sagging approval ratings is his low marks on health care (just 37% of respondents approve of his performance) and the economy (39%), the issues mentioned first and third most often by voters as their top concerns (climate ranks second). Among political independents he fares even worse.

Voters’ disappointment on these two fronts may be justified. Mr Biden has failed to get any big health-care reforms passed (in September a House committee rejected his plan to allow Medicare, the government’s health plan for the elderly, to negotiate prescription-drug prices). The public’s chief economic worry is inflation, which is mostly outside the president’s control but which he will still probably be blamed for. It is unlikely that Mr Biden will solve these problems soon. If things do not improve, he may soon end up with worse ratings than even Mr Trump. ■