President Biden’s term in office is coming to an end with just one in four Americans viewing him as a “great or good” commander in chief — far fewer than either of his two immediate predecessors.
The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll published Friday also showed that just 22% of Americans think Biden, 82, lived up to his campaign promises while in office.
Of the remaining cohort, 39% of Americans said Biden “tried but failed to keep his promises,” while another 38% were not even that charitable to the outgoing 46th president.
In contrast, 36% said Donald Trump had been a “great or good” president during his first term and 52% gave Barack Obama high marks during his eight years in office.
Half of Democrats said Biden had been “great or good” — but just 10% of independents said the same, along with just 4% of Republicans.
Similarly, 42% of Democrats said Biden had kept his promises while in office, compared to 12% of independents and 4% of Republicans.
Biden’s overall approval rating in the poll stood at 39%, up one percentage point from January 2024 — the lowest of his term in office — but down 22 percentage points from when he took office in January 2021.
Pluralities of voters also said that both they and their families (38%) as well as the US as a whole (46%) are worse off since Biden was sworn in.
More than half of respondents said Biden had a negative impact on their cost of living (58%), immigration (56%), and the Israel-Hamas war (52%).
The poll was conducted Dec. 5-9 and surveyed 1,251 US adults.
The margin of error was plus-or-minus 3.7 percentage points.
