WASHINGTON (AP) — As Joe Biden prepares to step down, Americans have a worse view of his presidency than they did at the end of Donald Trump’s first term or Barack Obama’s second term, according to a novel poll.
About a quarter of U.S. adults said Biden would be a “good” or “great” president, and fewer than one in 10 said he was “great,” according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
It’s a clear example of how tarnished Biden’s legacy has become, with many in his own party viewing his Democratic presidency as merely mediocre. According to AP-NORC polls, about a third called Trump “good” or “great” on the eve of the Republican’s departure from the White House in 2021, including about two in 10 who said he was “great” even afterward He helped spark a deadly insurrection in which a mob of his supporters overran the U.S. Capitol. Americans were similarly likely to describe both Biden and Trump as “poor” or “terrible” — about half said it defined each president’s time in office — but about three in 10 said Biden was “average,” while fewer than two in 10 said this about Trump.
Biden’s standing is also much worse than that of the last outgoing Democratic President, Obama, who left office, with about half of Americans describing his time in office as “good” or “great,” according to another AP-NORC poll.
Those results are consistent with data released this week by Gallup that found Biden’s standing was similar to that of President Richard Nixon after the Republican resigned during the Watergate scandal. The Gallup analysis found that other presidents who left office with indigent ratings — including Trump, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Jimmy Carter — had more positive views of their presidencies over time. But for now, few seem impressed by Biden’s tenure, including a sizable portion of Democrats.
“I’m not going to sound like ‘Star Wars’ about him going to the dark side and everything that that might imply,” says John Cressey, a 79-year-old Democrat who lives in the Los Angeles area and does background work for Movies and movies, Biden said. “But I think he just lost the pulse of the nation and that’s why Trump won.”
Among Biden’s party supporters, only about one in 10 called his presidency “great,” while about four in 10 called it “good” and a similar share called it “average.”
Cressey said he has seen the 82-year-old Biden weaken physically and believes the president is increasingly being controlled by aides. He says Biden has allowed the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border to become “chaos.” And Cressey summed up his dismay over Biden’s handling of the economy by saying, “Go buy a carton of eggs.”
The disappointment is particularly great among black and Hispanic Americans
Things weren’t always so bad for Biden. According to AP-NORC polls, about 6 in 10 Americans approved of the way he had handled the presidency when he took office, but by early 2022 this had fallen to only about 4 in 10, with those views largely consistent for the remainder of his term stayed.
In the novel poll, disappointment was particularly felt among black and Hispanic Americans, who traditionally leaned Democratic but leaned toward Trump in greater numbers in 2024.
The contrast with Obama was particularly striking among black Americans. About six in 10 said Obama, the country’s only Black president, had kept his promises at the end of his term, compared with about three in 10 who said the same for Biden. Similarly, about seven in 10 Black Americans said they and their families were better off at the end of Obama’s presidency, while only about a third said the same about Biden.
“I feel like the economy hasn’t been positive since he’s been in office,” said Evonte Terrell, 30, a sales manager for a Detroit telecommunications company who described himself as a “fading Democrat.”
Terrell, who is Black, said the party has focused too much on things like climate change and war while deemphasizing rebuilding communities and helping the indigent. He also bristled at Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter, saying, “As a father, I would do the same thing,” but “not everyone is going to have that ability.”
Younger people in particular expressed a negative attitude towards Biden’s presidency. Only about one in 10 Americans under 30 say he was a “good” or “great” president, compared with about four in 10 Americans age 60 or older. About six in 10 Americans ages 18 to 29 say Biden was a “poor” or “terrible” president.
Terrell, facing student loan repayment, also pointed to Biden’s efforts to reduce education debt, which were rejected by the Supreme Court. He said that was akin to years of “just putting it off,” even though “otherwise I could have been paying it off all this time.”
A perception of failed promises
The Biden administration helped pass more comprehensive legislation than Trump or Obama – including on public works, microchip production and health care, and promoting green jobs. The president also signed the first major gun safety package in decades.
Still, only about two in 10 Americans said the president had kept his campaign promises. About 4 in 10 said he tried but didn’t keep his promises, and a similar proportion said he didn’t keep his promises.
Mark Jeanmougin, 47, a Cincinnati native who works in cybersecurity, voted for Trump in 2016 but supported Biden in 2020 and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
He sees Biden as a good president who has put the United States on track for success on issues such as climate change while also providing much-needed infrastructure funding. But he said Biden “definitely encountered some activist judges who said no to some of his policies.”
Jeanmougin said Biden has helped improve the economy post-COVID-19 and rising inflation is an expected result.
“A hard landing, lots of unemployment or a soft landing with inflation,” he said. “We knew this was going to happen. “So the idea that so many of my fellow citizens didn’t know about this or weren’t aware of it is really difficult.”
Overall, about half of Democrats said Biden tried to renege on his campaign promises, while about four in 10 said he succeeded.
Few believe they are doing better
With few exceptions, most Americans are not convinced that Biden leaves the country in a better position than when he took office four years ago.
When it comes to job creation and prescription drug costs, Americans were just as likely to say Biden had a positive influence as they were to say he had a negative influence. A similar proportion said it had no influence.
But many thought he had done more harm than good in other key areas. At least half of Americans said Biden had a negative impact on the cost of living, immigration and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians – compared to about two in 10 who said he had a positive impact in each of those areas.
He was also perceived to have had a negative rather than positive impact on Russia’s war with Ukraine, despite his government pushing for billions of dollars in military aid to Kiev. Negative views of Biden over Israel’s war on Hamas were particularly pronounced among younger voters: slightly fewer than one in 10 Americans under 30 said he had a positive impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
About four in 10 Americans said they and their families are somewhat or much worse off than when Biden became president, while about a quarter said they are much or somewhat better off.
Only about a quarter said they and their families would be worse off at the end of the Trump or Obama presidency.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,251 adults was conducted December 5-9, 2024. A sample was used from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is intended to be representative of the US population. The overall sampling error rate for adults is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
