President Joe Biden is struggling to connect with Americans across a variety of critical issues as former President Donald Trump enjoys a commanding 10-point lead over his anticipated rival for the White House in 2024, polling released Sunday shows.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll reveals Democrat Biden lacking engagement with a skeptical public, with dissatisfaction growing over his handling of the economy and immigration, a rising share saying the U.S. is doing too much to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia and broad concerns about his age as he seeks a second term.
Overall Biden’s job approval rating is sunk 19 points underwater while his ratings for handling the economy and immigration stand at career lows.
The numbers also show Biden trailing his ascendant Republican predecessor and likely future opponent by 10 percentage points at this early stage in the election cycle – well beyond the margin of error for the survey.
Biden’s overall approval stands at 37 percent, about where it was in May but lower than in February when it was 42 percent. The Post-ABC poll finds 56 percent of Americans disapproving of Biden, a figure aligning with other recent polls, the Post reveals in its own report on the results.
🇺🇲 2024 GE: ABC/WP POLL (A)
(R) Trump 52% (+10)
(D) Biden 42%Independents
(R) Trump 52% (+13)
(D) Biden 39%ABC/WP (A) | n=890 RV | 9/15-20https://t.co/gQAFyanIdp pic.twitter.com/9nDBdNCu6N
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) September 24, 2023
The survey also asked people whether, looking back, approve or disapprove of the way Trump handled the job of being president. The result was 48 percent saying they approve and 49 percent saying they disapprove.
That 48 percent approval is 10 points better than when he left office in January 2021 and higher than it was through nearly the entirety of his presidency, Post reporters Dan Balz, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin point out.
Overall, roughly three in four Americans say the economy is not so good or poor and 57 percent rate it negatively. There are even worse ratings of gas or energy prices (87 percent say not so good or poor), which have recently risen again, and food prices (a 91 percent negative rating).
This survey also shows Americans losing faith in how Biden is handling the illegal immigration crisis on the porous southern border.
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Asked about Biden’s handling of the human tide crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, 23 percent say they approve while 62 percent say they disapprove. That compares with 28 percent approval and 59 percent disapproval in February.
In terms of intensity of sentiment, 20 percent strongly approve of his work overall, while 45 percent strongly disapprove. And the 74 percent who say he’s too old for a second term is up six percentage points since May.
Similar disappointment is shown in Biden’s push to support Ukraine with billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Since the start of the war in February 2022, public opinion has shifted away from supporting the Ukrainians. The current survey finds 41 percent saying the United States is doing too much to help, 31 percent saying it is the right amount and 18 percent saying it is too little.
In February, 33 percent said they thought levels of assistance were too much while in April 2022, 14 percent held that view.
Former President Donald Trump slammed President Joe Biden for “dragging us further toward World War III,” after he authorized mobilizing military reservists to active duty to support the Ukraine War. https://t.co/StPGZMBoqp
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 15, 2023
The poll was conducted Sept. 15-20, among a random national sample of 1,006 U.S. adults, with 75 percent reached on cellphones and 25 percent on landlines. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The error margin is four points among the sample of 890 registered voters, and larger among other subgroups.
See the Washington Post-ABC News poll results in full here
