Which Us President Had The Worst Approval Ratings
See which recent leader got the lowest grades on his polling report cards.
For many decades, the Gallup polling firm has been asking Americans: “Do you approve or disapprove of the way is handling his job as president?” The approval percentages from these polls provide a sort of running report card on the person in the White House.
Some presidents have enjoyed high scores, particularly when the country has rallied behind its leader during tough times. But other commanders-in-chief have been relatively unpopular.
As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office, the U.S. is dealing with a recession and a deadly pandemic, and how he leads the country through these challenges will help determine his approval ratings.
Which presidents won high approval from Americans, and which earned C and D report cards? Here are the average Gallup Poll approval ratings for the last 13 presidents, counting down to the least popular prez in recent history.
Opinion: Bidens Polling Numbers Are Even Worse Than They Appear
Democrats are rightly worried about President Bidens poor job approval ratings. A closer look at his ratings among independents shows Democrats should be even more worried than they are.
Bidens overall job approval ratings are bad enough. Only 45.1 percent of Americans approve of his performance per Mondays RealClearPolitics average 47.9 percent disapprove. That alone makes Biden less popular at this stage of his presidency than any president in the past 40 years except for Donald Trump.
Among independents, however, Biden is about as unpopular as Trump was at this stage in his presidency. An average of only 39 percent of independents approved of Bidens performance in the three polls taken between Sept. 18 and 26 that made data available for those voters 52 percent disapproved. Trumps comparable numbers among independents in three polls taken between Sept. 22 and 27, 2017, were 38 percent approval and 50 percent disapproval. That means Bidens minus-13 net job approval among independents is statistically identical to Trumps minus-12.
Biden won independents by 13 points in 2020. To go from plus-13 to minus-13 in less than a year is an epic disaster. Republicans are standing by, ready to pick up the pieces from a crumbling presidency.
Ratings For Us Mostly Favorable Though Low Among Some Key Allies
While overall attitudes toward the United States are favorable, there are large differences across the 33 nations in the study, especially among some of its key European Union allies. It receives its most positive reviews in the region from three Central and Eastern European nations: 79% of Poles, 70% of Lithuanians and 66% of Hungarians have a favorable opinion of the U.S.
Meanwhile, Europeâs lowest ratings for the U.S. are in the Netherlands , Sweden and Germany . Outside of the EU, ratings for the U.S. are much more positive in Ukraine than in Russia .
As has been the case over time in Pew Research Center surveys, most in the sub-Saharan African nations polled express favorable opinions of the U.S. Views in Asia are also mostly positive, though 45% in U.S. ally Australia currently give the U.S. an unfavorable rating.
Israelis give the U.S. its highest rating on the survey . But while 94% of Israeli Jews see the U.S. positively, just 37% of Israeli Arabs agree. Elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, attitudes are more negative. This is especially the case in Turkey, where just one-in-five have a favorable opinion of the U.S., the lowest percentage registered in the survey.
Views of the U.S. are mostly negative in Mexico, where just 36% give the U.S. a favorable rating, only 8% have confidence in Trump and fully 90% oppose the building of a wall on their countryâs border with the U.S.
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Presidents With The Lowest Approval Ratings
Since the introduction of the presidential job approval system by George Gallup in the 1930s, US citizens have the opportunity to express their approval or disapproval of how a certain president performs their duties. Though the opinion polls conducted are majorly subjective, they give a range of the popularity the president has among the citizens. The ratings of presidents have varied from approval to disapproval during their terms in office. While ratings are expected to fall during scandalous moments, ratings can also rise.
Poll: Biden Approval Rating Matches Trump At This Point Of Presidency
The Rasmussen Reports daily presidential tracking poll for Monday shows that 43% of likely U.S. voters approve of President Bidens job performance while 56 percent disapprove.
According to the polling firm, the approval rating for former President Donald Trump at this time in his presidency was 42%.
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Reuters/ipsos Trump Approval Rating: 403 Percent
The latest findings by Reuters and Ipsos, who poll weekly, are similar to numerous other pollsters.
As of Sept. 9, polls found Trump with a 40.3 percent approval rating, compared to 53.6 percent of those polled who disapproved of him.
The weekly polls also found Trumps approval rating nosediving in August, hitting 38.3 percent for the week ending on Aug. 26th.
Biden’s Approval Rating Plummets To Historic Lows In California
President Joe Biden has become almost as unpopular as former President Trump.
His presidential ratings marked another sharp decline this month. He is now barely hanging on flaccid 42% approval nationwide. Trump held to his 41.2%, as the most unpopular president since Gallup started measuring ratings in 1945.
American presidents usually start with high approvals. They’re winners, and everything from the inaugural day is usually a downhill battle. Rarely is any president more popular leaving office.
“At the Town Hall, President Biden admitted that he has not yet had time to visit the Southern Border, though his approval rating has,” said Collin Jost during the Weekend Update on SNL. Funnily enough, comedians can sometimes perfectly sum up the feeling of the entire nation.
Twitter is also having a field day.
Biden is suffering a barrage of jokes on his account. Twitter is a brutal and unforgiving place when it comes to political mockery.
Biden is growing unpopular among both sides of the aisle. The current administration is facing more troubles ahead. The upcoming Holiday season mixed with supply-chain issues and empty supermarket shelves might push Biden’s approval rating to record lows. Nobody wants to win at losing.
Are you worried about Biden’s presidency?
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Lyndon B Johnson: 551%
Presidency: 1963-1969
LBJ took office immediately following the death of John F. Kennedy, and he began his presidency with strong approval ratings by vowing to continue JFKs legacy.
But Johnson was in office during a restless time for America, with the U.S. fighting in Vietnam while dealing with a civil rights struggle and waging a war on poverty at home.
The 36th presidents ratings started to trend downhill as Americans began to sour on the war in Vietnam and grew concerned about rioting in major cities. Johnson ultimately chose not to run for re-election in 1968.
Want to learn more about the occupants of the White House? Shop online for a presidential history book, and be sure to use a free browser extension that will find you the lowest price.
Polling Average Put Biden’s Approval Rating Higher Than 39%
Experts say approval ratings should be calculated by looking at an average between polls not a single poll. On the day the claim was made, the polling average for Biden’s approval rating was 45.2%.
“The best practice to look at multiple polls and not to fixate on an individual poll, which can be cherry-picked to make inaccurate arguments,” Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center and professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an email.
The website FiveThirtyEight rates how different polls vary in terms of accuracy and statistical bias. It calculates approval ratings for presidents based on a weighted average that takes into account poll quality and uncertainty.
According to that polling average, Biden’s approval rate was 45.2% on the day the claim was posted.
The Facebook post appeared to refer to an Economist/YouGov poll conducted Sept. 4-7. It reported 39% of American adults approved of Biden. YouGov noted this was the first time the majority of Americans disapproved of Biden during his presidency.
However, Burden told USA TODAY this poll was “unusually low.”
Fact check:Claim that Biden is withholding benefits from unvaccinated veterans originated as satire
“In the last month YouGov has also reported approval ratings of 44% and 50%,” he said. “Taken as a group it is more accurate to say that Biden’s rating is hovering in the mid-40s.”
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Quinnipiac Trump Approval Rating: 38 Percent
In early September Quinnipiac found that only 38 percent of those polled approved of Trump as president, compared to 54 percent who disapproved and 8 percent who werent sure.
In early July the universitys polling arm found Trump with a 40 percent approval rating, similar to what it was in June.
The same poll found that 48 percent of those polled disapprove strongly of Trump, compared to just 27 percent of people who approve strongly of him.
The Pessimistic Electorate Behind Bidens Approval Ratings
In the era of modern polling, only Donald J. Trump has had a lower approval rating than President Bidens at this early stage of his term.
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Whats dragging down President Bidens approval rating?
Everyone.
And everything.
Mr. Bidens approval ratings have declined on nearly every issue and among nearly every demographic group in national surveys over the last two months, as the promise of a return to normalcy has given way to rising inflation, a simmering pandemic, gridlock in Washington and chaos on the border and in Afghanistan.
The presidents approval ratings have sunk into the low-to-mid 40s, putting him into rather lonely historical company. In the era of modern polling, only Donald J. Trump had a lower approval rating at this early stage of his term.
Theres no evidence the damage to Mr. Biden is irreparable.
Many presidents have won re-election after watching their ratings fall to similar depths during their first two years in office. Voters can have a short memory. And while President Bidens losses have been pronounced among reliable Democratic constituencies, such as young, Latino and even Black voters, those groups can also be relatively easy for Democrats to win back.
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Republican Support For Another Trump Term Growing
In a recent Quinnipiac poll, 78% of Republicans support another Trump run in 2024.
In a HarrisX-Hill poll that number is 77% among the GOP.
67% of Republicans support Trump 2024 67%-29% according to Morning Consultant/Politico.
As for those who want Trump to play a major role in politics, 63% approve according to Quinnipiac.
John McLaughlin shows that if the election were held today, Trump would beat Biden and Harris in a landslide. I talk more about why another run in 2024 is likely and needed here.
According to Steve Schmidt, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, Trump could win the election in 2024 without Twitter or Facebook. He believes all Trump would need are right leaning media outlets to get his message out and could use his suspension as fuel for his campaign as major talking points.
The right-wing media ecosystem is vast and sophisticated, and anyone who thinks its top-down in that its initiated with a Trump tweet and then propagates and spreads from that position just doesnt understand how information moves.
What Would Make You Change Your Mind About Donald J Trump
When Michael Tesler, a political scientist at the University of California Irvine, tries to explain the amazing stability of Trumps approval in his classes, he starts with a question. He asks his students if theres anything Trump could do to make them support him. And hes invariably met by a sea of shaking heads. If you went into Trumps presidency thinking hes a racist, sexist, xenophobic, immoral, narcissistic, corrupt, and incompetent person beliefs held by most Clinton voters then theres literally almost nothing he could do to change your mind, says Tesler.
The same is true in reverse. If you see Trump as the protector of Western Civilization, as Charlie Kirk called him the other night at the RNC, or the protector of white America, as Desmond King and Rogers Smith have called him, defending cherished American values from atheist, left-wing socialists who want to take your guns and put Cory Booker in charge of diversifying your neighborhoods, then theres almost nothing that would make you abandon him, Tesler continues.
But how do we know if were being governed with a bare level of competence?
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Trump’s Approval Rating Craters In Final Days
After four years of stability, the outgoing presidents poll numbers have reached new lows following last weeks Capitol insurrection.
President Donald Trumps slide means he will leave the Oval Office historically unpopular compared with most of his predecessors.
01/13/2021 06:00 AM EST
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Tarnished by last weeks riot at the Capitol, Donald Trump is ending his presidency with his lowest-ever poll numbers.
A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll pegs Trumps approval at just 34 percent, the lowest in four years of tracking opinions of the presidents job performance. More than six in 10 voters 63 percent disapprove.
That matches other polls conducted over the past week showing Trumps approval rating sliding roughly 10 points following the Capitol riots which Democrats and some Republicans say Trump incited with his false and bellicose rhetoric about the 2020 presidential election.
For nearly four years, Trumps approval ratings have been extraordinarily stable, ranging between the high 30s and high 40s. Trumps denial of the election results and the sacking of the Capitol, however, have managed to do what a failed effort to repeal Obamacare, the white-supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Va., impeachment and other scandals couldnt: erode his once-durable support to new lows.
The drop among independents was similar: Fewer than three in 10 independent voters now approve of Trump 29 percent, down from 38 percent in December.
By KYLE CHENEY
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According to this weeks poll, Mr Bidens net approval rating is a dismal minus nine points. Although this is better than Mr Trumps score of -15 at this point in his presidency, it is far below Mr Obamas plus six. And support for Mr Biden is deteriorating rapidly. His net approval rating has fallen by more than ten points since his 200th day in office, just over two months ago. Mr Obamas fell by only four, and Mr Trumps by just one, over the corresponding period .
It is hard to know exactly what accounts for the slump. Some pin the blame on the surge in covid-19 cases and deaths over the summer, fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant. After all, voters elected Mr Biden in large part because he was seen as better equipped than Mr Trump to tackle the pandemic. Others think Democrats have become disaffected with the president because he has failed to pass key parts of his agenda, including a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a multi-trillion-dollar social-spending package, which would fund health care, education, climate change and other progressive priorities.
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