Poll: Joe Biden's Approval Rating Is Worse Than Trump's Was at Same Point in His Presidency

By Jack Cowhick March 2, 2021 at 1:57pm

President Joe Biden’s 81 million voters don’t seem to be showing up at the polls.

According to a Tuesday Rasmussen Reports poll taken from approximately 10,000 likely voters, the newly elected president clocked in at just 50 percent approval and 47 percent disapproval following his first month in office. This number is in contrast to former President Donald Trump’s first-month approval rating of 52 percent.

50% Approved of Biden’s First Full Month as President https://t.co/P47GchXJz2 pic.twitter.com/xmcKUX5hKw

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) March 2, 2021

According to the Washington Examiner, during Trump’s presidency, 44 percent of similar poll respondents believed the country was heading in the right direction while 50 percent believed the opposite.

Under Biden, though, just 37 percent of respondents believe the country is heading the right way while a whopping 57 percent believe the country is heading the wrong way.

Rasmussen Reports also compiled an approval index, which is the difference between the president’s strong approval and strong disapproval ratings.

“Thirty-four percent (34%) of voters strongly approved of Biden’s job performance in February, while 39% strongly disapproved,” Rasmussen found, according to the Examiner.

“This gives him his first full-month Presidential Approval Index rating of -5. When Trump first took office in January 2017, he earned a full-month Approval Index rating of -4 after his first full month. During his final full month in office, his Approval Index rating was -8.”

Do you approve of how President Biden is doing his job so far?

This difference of just one point certainly seems minuscule, but it’s important to remember that Rasmussen’s sample group compiled 10,000 likely voters, a very representative model of the American population. A difference of just one point could mean tens of thousands of voters in actuality.

Biden is, however, more popular with his own party. Trump had an 81 percent approval rating among Republicans. Meanwhile, Biden has an 83 percent approval rating among Democrats.

The Rasmussen poll reported a margin of error of +/- 1 percentage point.

Some criticize Rasmussen Reports poll results due to their citations by Trump. However, according to the Examiner, Rasmussen has previously explained that polls use “a model nearly identical to the partisan breakdown in the 2020 election exit polls,” presumably so bias is removed from the equation.

The Examiner reported that according to CNN and The New York Times’ exit polls, the 2020 vote was composed of 37 percent Democrats, 36 percent Republicans and 27 percent independent voters.

Meanwhile, Rasmussen’s model was reportedly composed of 38 percent Democrats, 36 percent Republicans and 27 percent independent voters, out of a sample of 10,000 respondents.

Most polls are also taken with a leftward bias, like the most recent Reuters/Ipsos Biden approval rating poll. This poll reported Biden’s approval rating at 57 percent, 7 points over Rasmussen’s, however its sample was made up of 48 percent Democrats compared to Rasmussen’s 38 percent.

It’s certainly interesting to see presidential approval polls come following the election, especially considering the fact that the current president received more votes in 2020 than any candidate had ever before, beating former President Barack Obama’s record by over 11 million votes.

Biden’s apparent drastic drop in ratings might have come from a multitude of things. For example, a migrant influx care center recently opened in Carrizo Springs, Texas, for which Biden was criticized by some members of his own party, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Some might have also disapproved of Biden’s recent missile strike in Syria, in heavy contrast with his and his team’s criticism of Trump’s use of force in the Middle East, which include tweets from both his press secretary Jen Psaki and current Vice President Kamala Harris.

Also what is the legal authority for strikes? Assad is a brutal dictator. But Syria is a sovereign country.

— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) April 7, 2017

I strongly support our men and women in uniform and believe we must hold Assad accountable for his unconscionable use of chemical weapons. But I am deeply concerned about the legal rationale of last night’s strikes.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) April 14, 2018

It seems that hypocrisy is somewhat of a standard within the Biden administration, so it’s more than possible that these polls will foreshadow a realization that Biden was, although maybe not in the way he intended, a return to normalcy.

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