With less than a week left until President Biden’s tenure in the White House sunsets, a new national poll indicates many Americans do not think history will be kind to him.
According to a USA Today/Suffolk University survey released on Tuesday, 44% of voters nationwide say history will assess Biden as a failed president, with another 27% saying he will be judged as a fair president. Twenty-one percent of those questioned said history will view Biden as a good president, with only 5% saying he will be seen as a great president.
However, the poll also found that 44% of Americans believe President-elect Donald Trump will be seen by history as a failed president. One in five say that Trump, who begins his second term next week, will be viewed as a great president, with 19% saying good and 27% saying he would be judged a fair president.
The poll also found that opinions about Trump’s first term have risen in polling conducted since his convincing victory in November’s presidential election over Vice President Kamala Harris. According to the USA Today/Suffolk poll, 52% of those surveyed say they approve of the job Trump did during his first term in office, with 45% giving him a thumbs down.
Looking ahead, 31% said they were excited Trump was returning to the White House, with 18% saying they were satisfied. However, 12% said they were depressed and 31% are afraid of a second Trump presidency.
The poll also found that 43% say they approve of the job Biden’s done as president as he leaves office, with 54% disapproving. Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House, but started sagging in August 2021 following a surge in COVID-19 cases and soaring inflation.
According to the poll, nearly a quarter of respondents were undecided when asked to name Biden’s biggest achievement as president, with 19% saying investing in infrastructure and 10% saying fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. As for his biggest failure as president, just over three in ten pointed to Biden’s handing of immigration, with 20% offering the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021.