President Joe Biden has the worst job approval rating since Eisenhower during his recently completed 13th quarter in office, according to a new poll by Gallup.
While Biden clocks in at 38.7%, the previous low was set by George H.W. Bush at 41.8% in 1992. Donald Trump and Barack Obama averaged 46.8% and 45.9% respectively during the same point in their presidencies. Prior to Bush, Jimmy Carter is the only other president with a sub-50% average in his 13th quarter.
Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush averaged between 51% and 55% approval in their 13th quarters, while Dwight Eisenhower had the highest average for a president during his 13th month at 73.2%.
What’s more, Biden’s most recent approval rating places him 277 out of 314 presidential quarters in Gallup history dating back to 1945, placing him in the bottom 12% of all presidential quarters. Biden’s score is technically the lowest of his presidency, which has been dragging in the low 40% range since Q4 of his term.
Put another way:
This union worker says what much of America is thinking right now…..????? pic.twitter.com/b4BOEchMBh
— Spitfire (@DogRightGirl) April 25, 2024
By political affiliation, Gallup’s poll found that 2% of Republicans approve of Biden’s job in office, while independents have him at 33%. The vast majority of Democrats, 83%, think Biden’s doing an awesome job.
Meanwhile an Axios ‘vibes survey‘ / Harris poll found that most Americans want mass deportations, including 42% of Democrats.
The poll also found that 30% of Democrats and 46% of Republicans say they’d end birthright citizenship guaranteed under the 14th Amendment.
As Axios notes further:
Americans are open to former President Trump’s harshest immigration plans, spurred on by a record surge of illegal border crossings and a relentless messaging war waged by Republicans.
- President Biden is keenly aware the crisis threatens his re-election. He’s sought to flip the script by accusing Trump of sabotaging Congress’ most conservative bipartisan immigration bill in decades.
- But when it comes to blame, Biden so far has failed to shift the narrative: 32% of respondents say his administration is “most responsible” for the crisis, outranking any other political or structural factor.
“I was surprised at the public support for large-scale deportations,” said Mark Penn, chairman of The Harris Poll and a former pollster for President Clinton, adding “I think they’re just sending a message to politicians: ‘Get this under control,’” suggesting that this is a clear warning to Biden that “efforts to shift responsibility for the issue to Trump are not going to work.”
Drilling down, when asked to identify their greatest concern surrounding illegal immigration, Americans most frequently cited:
- Increased crime rates, drugs, and violence (21%).
- The additional costs to taxpayers (18%).
- Risk of terrorism and national security (17%).
The survey also found that 64% of those polled believe immigrants receive more in welfare and benefits than they pay in taxes, and 54% believe that immigration is linked to spiking US crime rates, which Axios refutes.
Bottom line: “The tradeoff here in the poll is, people would take expanded legal immigration if they saw there’s a crackdown on the border,” according to Penn.
