President Biden leaves office with negative business and personal approval ratings, while voters continue to give the economy poor marks — and say the White House has failed to make improvements.
A new survey by Fox News shows that nearly twice as many think so Biden administration has made the economy worse, not better, 52% vs. 28%. In addition, nearly all voters, 89%, say they are extremely or very concerned about inflation — up from 83% at the start of his term (2021).
Overall, 70% say the economy is in bad shape. While that’s better than Biden’s high of 84% who viewed him unfavorably in July 2022, it’s also back to where things stood at the start of his presidency when 69% said the same.
“Despite presiding over the world’s strongest post-pandemic economic recovery and historic infrastructure investments that will produce millions of new jobs over the next decade, voters clearly saw Biden’s economic efforts as counterproductive,” said Democratic pollster Chris Anderson, whose firm Beacon Research conducts Fox News research along with Republican Daron Shaw. – Time will tell if history will judge him differently.
FOX NEWS POLL: TRUMP IS THE MOST POPULAR HE’S EVER BEEN
Only 13% of voters say they are doing well financially. Three times as many, 42%, believe they are lagging behind – and that is 15 points more than the 27% who felt that way almost four years ago.
Part of that increase was driven by Democrats, who are twice as likely to say they are behind today: 38% versus 19% in June 2021.
And almost 6 out of 10 democrats 8 in 10 Republicans and 7 in 10 independents agree that the economy is in good or bad shape.
“If the election is mostly about how voters think the governing party has managed the economy, it’s easy to see why the Democrats lost the 2024 election,” says Shaw. “Unfortunately for Biden, he remains ineffective at proving that his policies have improved the bottom line, even among his base.”
As Biden leaves, 42% of voters approve of his job performance — just 2 percentage points above his record low.
Biden’s approval rating is lower than Barack Obama (57%) and Bill Clinton (62%) at the end of the presidential term, but more than George W. Bush (34%). Some 47% approved of Donald Trump at the end of his first term.
Biden’s highest approval rating, 56%, came six months into his presidency (June 2021). His lowest, 40% approval, came at three points during his term (July 2022, November 2023 and October 2024).
The average job rating for the entire duration of his presidential term is 44% approve versus 55% disapprove.
FOX NEWS POLL: VOTERS VIEW 2024 NEGATIVELY, BUT HAVE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
Eighty percent of Democrats approve of Biden’s departure, as do 35 percent of independents and 9 percent of Republicans. By comparison, after 100 days of his presidency, 95% of Democrats approved, as did 42% of independents and 14% of Republicans.
Views on Biden as a person are the opposite of what they were when he was elected. At the end of 2020, about 59 percent of voters had a favorable opinion of him, and 39 percent had an unfavorable opinion of him. The latest reading shows that 40% view him favorably and 59% unfavorably.
This makes it less popular than Trump at the end of his first term (45% favorable, 54% unfavorable), and Obama (60-39%), Bush (49-46%) and Clinton (48-46%) at the end of their term.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Trump’s current favorable rating tells the story of the moment: a record 50% of voters have a favorable opinion of him, and 50% have a negative opinion.
Conducted January 10-13, 2025 by Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News survey includes interviews with a sample of 922 registered voters randomly selected from the national voter file. Respondents spoke with interviewers live on landlines (114) and mobile phones (638) or completed the survey online after receiving an SMS (170). Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. The sampling error associated with the results among the subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling error, the wording and order of the questions may affect the results. Weights are generally applied to the age, race, education, and area variables to ensure that the demographics of respondents are representative of the population of registered voters. Sources for developing target weights include the American Community Survey, Fox News voter analysis, and voter file data.
Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report.
