Biden’s first job approval ratings are in. How do they compare to other new presidents?
President Joe Biden’s initial approval ratings after his inauguration indicate that Biden is popular compared to recent past presidents as he grapples with a pandemic, crippled economic and political unrest.
A poll from Hill-HarrisX found 63% of respondents approved of Biden’s job as president while 37% said they disapproved. The survey was conducted Jan. 21-22 among 941 registered voters. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.19 percentage points.
The results were partisan. Ninety-four of Democratic voters in the survey said they approve of Biden while only 30% of Republican voters approve of his job performance. Sixty-two percent of independents approve of Biden.
Another poll by Morning Consult found that Biden’s initial approval rating is higher than former President Donald Trump’s highest ever rating. The survey found Biden has a 56% approval rating while 34% of respondents disapproved. The survey was conducted Jan. 22-24 with a sample size of more than 11,000 registered voters. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 point.
Biden’s approval rating in the latest survey is four percentage points higher than the Morning Consult/Politico March 2017 poll that found 52% of people approved of Trump — the highest approval rating of his presidency. Forty-six percent of respondents approved of Trump in a poll conducted at a similar milestone at the beginning of his term.
Biden has seen an increase in popularity since he was inaugurated on Jan. 20 on the heels of a contentious presidential election and transition period. Morning Consult found that among all voters surveyed, 55% of respondents favored Biden before the inauguration and 58% approved after the inauguration.
With the exception of Trump, presidents have typically received higher approval ratings in their first six months in office, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Trump’s average approval rating was 41.4% during the first six months of his term, with an average 52.2% disapproval, according to FiveThirtyEight’s aggregate of polls. Former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had average approval ratings of 60.2%, 53.9% and 50.5% during their first six months of presidency, respectively.
Some political experts say that the divisive political climate and news media environment has diminished the “honeymoon” period experienced by past presidents.
“One of the things that’s happened is that old-fashioned ‘let’s give the guy a chance’ has kind of evaporated,” said Jeffrey Cohen, a political scientist at Fordham University, according to FiveThirtyEight. “Instead, people don’t break out of their voting patterns. The divisiveness that you see in election campaigns stays.”
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 8:55 AM with the headline "Biden’s first job approval ratings are in. How do they compare to other new presidents?."