The approval rating of Joe Biden has hit a record low, dipping below 40 percent for the first time since the U.S president took office, according to an average of recent national polls.
Biden’s popularity among voters held strong above 50 percent for the first half of last year, but a surge in coronavirus deaths, the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and a sharp rise in inflation have resulted in questions being raised over his leadership and a dip in voter confidence.
According to an average of recent national polls by Real Clear Politics, Biden’s approval rating has dropped to 39 percent, while his disapproval rating has hit 54 percent, which is calculated based on taking the average of a selection of recent polling from a number of polling firms.
To put Biden’s performance into context, he is actually less popular than former U.S. president Donald Trump at the same time during his presidency with an approval rating 2.5-percentage points lower than the Republican former leader.
Trump also currently has a higher favorability rating than Biden, underlining just how precarious Biden’s political fortunes have grown.
The Real Check Politics polling revealed that almost two-thirds of Americans, 65.1 percent, believed that Joe Biden’s presidency was heading in the wrong direction.
It is not difficult to see why after data published on Thursday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed U.S. inflation was now running at 7.5 percent, its fastest annual pace since 1982.
White House officials scrambled to mitigate the media response to the rise in the cost of living on Wednesday, with Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, telling reporters ahead of the inflation announcement that a high yearly inflation reading was expected.
“Above 7 percent, as I think some are predicting, would not be a surprise,” Psaki said, attempting to reassure the media that “looking at recent trends … the inflationary increases are decreasing month to month.”
Biden, too, acknowledged the price hikes: “I know food prices are up. We’re working to bring them down. I’m going to work like the devil to bring gas prices down,” he said, speaking from Virginia.
Food prices are 7 percent higher, gas prices are 40 percent higher and energy prices are 27 percent higher than in January 2021, according to the Labor Department, a situation which is expected to see the under-pressure Federal Reserve to act more aggressively by raising interest rates.
In an interview with NBC on Thursday, Biden made the bold claim that according to the 14 Nobel laureates who have contacted him, inflation “ought to be able to start to taper off as we go through this year.”
Whether this will happen, and whether such action will bring back the confidence of the American people in Biden’s presidency, remains to be seen.
