Two new polls are showing trouble for President Biden as he faces off against former President Trump in a 2024 rematch. In a CNN national survey, Biden trails Trump by six points, and new numbers from Gallup indicate that Biden had the lowest approval rating of any president in the past 70 years during the first quarter of his re-election year. Trump leads Biden 49%-43% among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup, and in a five-person race, Trump tops Biden 42%-33%.
The CNN survey, conducted in mid-April, stands out from other national polls by Quinnipiac University, Marist College, NBC News, and the New York Times/Siena College, which indicated a much closer contest between Biden and Trump. Despite being a vocal critic of CNN, Trump took to social media to express satisfaction with the poll numbers. Americans tend to view past presidencies more favorably over time, and the survey suggests that 55% of Americans now see Trump’s presidency as a success, compared to 44% who view it as a failure.
In contrast, 61% of Americans rate Biden’s presidency as a failure, with only 39% calling it a success. The majority of Americans now believe that Trump’s term as president was a success, while most view Biden’s term as a failure. Biden’s approval rating remains deeply underwater in the new poll, with a 40% approval rating and 60% disapproval. According to Gallup, Biden’s 13th quarter in office saw him averaging a 38.7% job approval rating, the lowest among the first-term presidents since Dwight Eisenhower.
None of the other nine presidents elected to their first term since Eisenhower had a lower 13th-quarter average than Biden. Of the four other presidents who had approval ratings under 50% in the first quarter of their re-election year, only Obama won a second term in office. The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from April 18-23, with 1,212 adults questioned, and the survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. As Election Day approaches, these polls indicate a tough road ahead for President Biden as he seeks re-election against former President Trump in 2024.
