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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Biden Enjoys Strong Job Performance Polling as He Nears 100 Days in Office

On top of outpacing his own numbers from last month, Biden is also outperforming the approval ratings earned by former President Donald Trump when comparing their earliest formative days as president.

(CN) --- As President Joe Biden approaches the completion of his first 100 days in the White House, new polling data reveals most Americans approve of his job performance as president thus far.   

According to a poll released Thursday by Pew Research Center, 59% of Americans say they like the job the president is doing while 39% say they disapprove. This approval rating represents a five-point jump for the president compared to last month when his approval rating sat at 54%.

On top of outpacing his own numbers from last month, Biden is also performing well beyond the approval ratings earned by former President Donald Trump when comparing their earliest formative days as president. At the end of Trump’s first 100 days in office he held an approval rating of just 39%, 20 percentage points below the numbers being put up by Biden.

Biden is also outperforming the earliest approval ratings of both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and is roughly on par with the numbers enjoyed by Barrack Obama and George H.W. Bush during their first few months in office. Only Ronald Reagan, who commanded a 67% approval rating at the end of his first 100 days, noticeably beat Biden in this regard.

Most Americans are further voicing their support for how Biden and his administration have managed to rollout vaccines to expectant Americans around the country. About seven in 10 Americans say the Biden administration has done a good or excellent job in distributing vaccine shots, an opinion shared by 88% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents and even 55% of Republicans and those that lean Republican.

Public support for the most recent Covid-19 relief bill that saw fresh checks released to many Americans is also tracking well. Nearly 70% of Americans say they think passing the $1.9 trillion aid bill was a good idea while another 55% say they think the bill will do the nation some good. Just 32% disapprove of the bill and 26% say they believe the bill will have a negative impact on the country.

This apparent surge of goodwill towards Biden and his administration, however, is not without its limits. Less than half of Americans say they actually side with the president on most issues facing the country today, with just 13% saying they agree with the president on all things and 31% saying they agree with him on most issues --- numbers fairly consistent with those reported for Trump during his time in office.

Perhaps nowhere is this divide more apparent than on the issue of the economy. Just 43% of Americans say they think Biden’s overall approach to economic management has resulted in a more robust economy when compared to the one seen under Trump, while 36% say he’s making the economy weaker. Another 20% say they think Biden’s policies are not making much of a difference one way or the other.

These feelings are, as they often have been in the past, divided strictly along party lines. While about three in four Republicans say they think Biden’s actions are leaving our economy worse off, an almost identical share of Democrats voice the exact opposite opinion.

Republicans and Democrats are also changing up their positions on the national deficit now that there is a new occupant in the White House. While just under half of Republicans said they were concerned about the budget deficit under Trump, that number has shot up to 71% since Biden has assumed office.

Democrats, meanwhile, have moved in the opposite direction. Just under half of Democrats said they thought the deficit was a major problem that needed addressing last year; today, only 31% say the same.

In a rare moment of bipartisanship over an issue that typically sees huge political divides, both Republicans and Democrats seem to be growing increasingly concerned over illegal immigration. Over 70% of GOP members say they are very worried about illegal immigration, up nearly 30 points from last summer. The number of Democrats seriously concerned over this, which last year clocked in at just 15%, has nearly doubled to 29%.

 Thursday’s poll of 5,109 Americans contained a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

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Categories / Government, Health, Politics

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