President Joe Biden (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain) With the passage of the COVID relief package in Congress plus the increase in vaccinations for the coronavirus, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday shows the number of Americans who approve of President Joe Biden continues to increase. From Reuters:
The March 17-18 national opinion poll found that 59% of adults in the United States approved of Biden’s overall job performance, while 35% disapproved and 6% said they were not sure.
The number of adults who approve of Biden is up by about 4 percentage points since a poll that ran in late January, and the increase is largely due to a rise in Biden’s popularity among independents.
About six in 10 independents said they approved of Biden in the latest poll, up from about five in 10 who felt the same way in January.
Read the full article here. As some right-wing pundits discussed with glee Biden tripping on the steps of Air Force One, this tweet pretty much summed up the situation for me:
Joe Biden got 100 million shots for Americans in 59 days, $2 trillion to actually help people and he told Putin to fuck off.
The last Gallup poll to report on Donald Trump’s approval rating shows the 45th president will leave the Oval Office with a dismal 34 percent approval. The number of Americans who disapprove of the job Trump has done has skyrocketed to 62 percent. Those are Trump’s worst numbers in the weekly tracking poll. His average job approval over 4 years is 41 percent. (screen capture via Gallup) It won’t be good news to Trump to learn that he lags far behind other recent presidents at this point in their time in office. At this point in their first terms in office, the three most recent presidents – Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton – all fared much better in terms of approval rating. Obama was at 54 percent, Bush was at 52 percent, and Clinton enjoyed 62 percent approval from the nation. Of course, it goes without saying that all three of those men served two terms in the Oval Office. See the graphic below. As I recently reported, Trump’s approval rating hit another all-time low over at Pew Research which showed a sad 29% approval.
Trump has a 34% approval rating in a new Gallup poll, the worst rating in that poll he’s ever had as president.
NEW: Gallup Poll posted its last approval rating of Trump’s presidency: He reached a record low of just 34%.
The 34% job approval rating is one point lower than his prior lowest single rating, registered on several occasions in late 2017, Gallup said. pic.twitter.com/1lRwz2gLer — Laura Litvan (@LauraLitvan) January 18, 2021
Trump is departing office having averaged 41% job approval during his 4 years in office, lower than any other president in @Gallup polling history.
Donald Trump (screen capture) A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows two-thirds of Americans approve of how President-elect Joe Biden is handling the weeks leading up to his inauguration. According to the survey, 67% of those polled approve of Biden’s handling of the presidential transition while only 25% disapprove. Additionally, 49% are confident Biden will make the right decisions. Four years ago, only 35% believed Trump would make good decisions. And speaking of the Donald… A large majority – 68% – oppose Trump pardoning himself versus 28% who support the move. Also – 54% of those polled feel Trump should be charged with a crime for inciting the riot that took place at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6. By an almost 2-1 margin, Americans believe Biden won the presidential election. While 32% are naysayers, 62% believe Biden had a clean win. A clear majority of Americans – 58% – support Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend Trump’s account. Forty-one percent oppose the idea. Almost half, 48%, strongly support the decision, while 36% strongly oppose it. My thoughts: count on Trump pardoning himself before he boards Marine One on the 20th. You can find the full results of the survey here.
Two-thirds approve of how Pres.-elect Joe Biden has handled his transition, new @ABC News/WaPo poll finds. That’s 27 points more than said so of Donald Trump four years ago, though it trails other recent presidents. https://t.co/6Nnxu7rAedpic.twitter.com/kJoFHmBRwf
No shit. He had to deal with #donaldtrumps uncooperative tantrums and his administration standing by his lies. Yes @JoeBiden has handled this well, very well.
L-R President Donald Trump, President-elect Joe Biden As Donald Trump exits the presidency and Joe Biden is about to take the reins, Pew Research Center has released the results of its latest survey. The news is good for Biden, not so good for Trump. First of all, Trump leaves office with the worst job approval rating (29%) since he took office. The percentage of voters who score Trump’s conduct since the election as only fair or poor has ticked up from 68% in November to 76%. Pew shares that nearly all of the increase was in his “poor” ratings (62% now, 54% then). Even true Trumpers have grown weary of his post-election conduct. The share of his supporters who categorize his conduct as “poor” has doubled over the past two months, from 10% to 20%. Related – Gallup poll: Trump Approval Rating Continues To Drop More than two-thirds of voters (68%) say Trump should not continue to be a major national political figure while 29% feel he should remain a major figure in U.S. politics. • 75% say Trump bears at least some responsibility for the chaos and carnage that occurred at the U.S. Capitol building last week • 54% support Trump being impeached and removed from office • 58% of Americans approve of the job Joe Biden has done in explaining his plans and policies • 57% approve of Biden’s Cabinet choices and other high-level appointments • 46% expect Biden to improve the way the federal government in Washington, D.C., works, while 28% say he will make things worse Check out more results of the survey at Pew Research Center.
Donald Trump speaks at the White House (photo: public domain) A majority of Trump supporters say the individuals who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week were undermining U.S. democracy rather than protecting it. From the Quinnipiac University poll: • 62% of respondents who voted for Trump said the rioters were undermining democracy, 19 % said they were protecting it • 80% said the rioters were undermining democracy, 10% said they were protecting it • 56% of voters say they hold Donald Trump responsible for the storming of the U.S. Capitol, while 42 percent say they do not hold him responsible • 52% of voters say Trump should be removed from office, 45% disagree; 53% also say he should resign as president, 43% disagree • 84% of Trump voters said there was widespread voter fraud, even though there is no evidence to support those claims • 8 in 10 Trump supporters said they approve of how the president is handling his job, 10% said they disapprove, 10% had no opinion • Among registered voters overall, however, 60% disapprove of the job Trump is doing while 33% approve of Trump’s performance (which ties his all-time low) • 45% of voters say Trump is mentally stable, while 48% say he is not mentally stable
Donald Trump during a White House press briefing (public domain) Per Gallup’s Daily Tracking averages, Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 38 percent with his disapproval rating at 57 percent. In regard to Trump’s full term to date, his highest approval rating via Gallup has been 49 percent, and his low 35 percent. His average Gallup rating has been 40 percent approval. For historical reference, the approval rating for other presidents in June of their fourth year: • Barack Obama – 46 percent approval • George W. Bush – 49 percent approval • Bill Clinton – 55 percent approval • George H.W. Bush – 37 percent approval • Ronald Reagan – 54 percent approval • Jimmy Carter – 32 percent approval • Richard Nixon – 58 percent approval
Some news items you might have missed: • The Gaily Grind: The U.S. House unanimously passed a bill Friday that would establish the Pulse nightclub in Orlando as a national memorial site, four years after a gunman opened fire on hundreds of people inside the club, killing 49 LGBTQ Americans and wounding dozens more. • Texas Tribune: Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday expressed regret for the first time about the reopening process he spearheaded during the coronavirus pandemic, saying he should not have allowed bars to open as quickly. “If I could go back and redo anything, it probably would have been to slow down the opening of bars, now seeing in the aftermath of how quickly the coronavirus spread in the bar setting,” Abbott said. • New Music: The late Harry Hains, a compelling musician, actor (best known for American Horror Story, The OA) as well as artist and model, didn’t define himself by the constructs surrounding us, and his concept of ANTIBOY offers a portal into an age of existence where there is complete unparalleled freedom to live without preconceptions and societal labels. At a time when society is rising up to break down old systems and demanding equality for all, Harry’s personal perspective of the intersection of sexuality, gender, race, and self-expression endures because of its cultural relevance.
• NY Times: In the middle of a world-wide pandemic, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court late Thursday to overturn the Affordable Care Act — a move that, if successful, would bring a permanent end to the health insurance program popularly known as Obamacare and wipe out coverage for as many as 23 million Americans. • NPR: Donald Trump’s disapproval numbers are at an all-time high, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. Trump’s approval rating sits at just 40% overall, while a record 58% disapprove. What’s more, a whopping 49% of voters “strongly disapprove” of the job Trump is doing. That kind of intensity of disapproval is a record never before seen for this president or any past one. • Twitter: Add another musical group not having Donald Trump use their music at his rallies. Brendon Urie, lead singer for Panic! At The Disco, made it short and sweet in tweeting his disgust at the Trump campaign for using one his band’s song during its MAGA rally in Phoenix this week. “Dear Trump campaign,” Urie wrote on Twitter. “F*ck you. You’re not invited. Stop playing my song. No thanks, Brendon Urie, Panic! At The Disco & company.”
Dear Trump Campaign,
Fuck you. You’re not invited. Stop playing my song. No thanks, Brendon Urie, Panic! At The Disco & company. — Brendon Urie (@brendonurie) June 24, 2020
Donald Trump during a White House press briefing (public domain) Donald Trump has seen his approval rating in six battleground states crucial to his reelection drop a precipitous 15 percentage points in the last month. As Trump faces an expanding economic collapse amid the ongoing COVID-19 health threat, nonpartisan polling group PRRI found Trump’s approval rating in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina plummet from 53% in March to a 38% approval rating. In terms of the entire nation, Trump fell from 49% approval to 43% approval. PRRI notes “Trump benefited from a brief ‘rally around the flag’ effect as the coronavirus pandemic began to spread in the U.S.” But with the number of confirmed U.S. cases of the coronavirus increasing exponentially from around 33,000 cases at the beginning of March to more than 1,000,000 cases and 63,000+ deaths today, that boost has quickly evaporated.
Donald Trump (image via public domain/White House) The latest results from Donald Trump’s favorite polling outlet, Rasmussen Reports, shows the Donald’s approval rating declining to a six month low of 43 percent. The survey, released Friday, found that 56 percent of voters disapprove of Trump’s job performance. In the past, Trump has cheered Rasmussen as “one of the most accurate” polling companies in the game. Those numbers mirror what’s happening at the Real Clear Politics average of polls where Trump scored his best-ever approval high of 47.3 percent on March 31 only to tumble to 44.9 percent in the days afterward. Rasmussen’s results have been an up/down adventure as Trump’s approval tends to rise in the middle of weeks only to decline again as new reports of record unemployment claims bring the new reality into focus again and again.
L-R Former Vice President Joe Biden, Donald Trump A new poll by the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab shows Donald Trump’s mixed messages and slow response to the ongoing coronavirus health threat is having a negative impact on his standing with voters in the vital swing-state of Florida. Pollsters found that 55% said the federal government has not gone far enough in taking action against COVID-19. The poll found 45% strongly or somewhat approve of the job Trump is doing to address the pandemic, while a majority of 53% disapprove. Asked if the election were held today, who voters would support for president, former Vice President Joe Biden trumped Trump by six points, 46% to 40%. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the president’s top health advisor, scored the highest rating with 85% approval and 6% disapproval among registered Florida voters.