President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are tied in favorability, but each are viewed less favorably than when they last faced off in 2020 according to a new poll from Gallup.
41% of adults view President Biden favorable, eight points below his October 2020 ratings. This echos his job approval ratings, down by more than 15 points from being above 50% his first year in office.
Trumps 42% is slightly lower than his 45% in October 2020 but is an improvement from 2021 and 2022 when he was facing intense criticism of how he handled the outcome of the 2020 election, including the January 6 riots at the U.S Capitol.
The new results are from a poll Gallup conducted December 1-20 with just over 1,000 American adults participating. The results are meant to represent the overall feelings the American people hold over the two front runners for the upcoming election, but they will not necessarily reflect the views when voters go to the polls in November.
The same poll asked for Americans impressions of Trumps rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (who has since dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump) and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy easily topped the list with a 52% favorability rating, Haley and DeSantis are viewed favorably by a third of voters respectively. However, of the two, Haley’s net image is more positive. Her ‘unfavorable’ rating is at 34% as opposed to DeSantis’s 52%. A larger group have no opinion on Haley (16%) than DeSantis (16%). These results were taken before a New Hampshire town hall where Haley failed to mention slavery as a cause of the U.S. Civil War, causing some controversy.
How much of Kennedy’s favorability is being influenced by his family name is unclear, though he faces a burden of petitioning to get on the ballot in enough states to be considered a viable candidate.
Among Republicans, Former President Trump is view best at 79% favorable and 19% unfavorable, despite the multiple court cases against him. He is followed by DeSantis (63%, 24%), and then Haley (44%, 24%). Haley’s figures are lower because most Republicans feel they don’t know her well enough to have an opinion, or flat out say they haven’t heard of her than can’t comment on DeSantis.
Since taking office in 2021, Biden’s favorability has fallen among nearly all major groups, but more so among young adults and people of color.
He received ratings near 50% from all age groups in October 2020, Biden is now viewed most favorably by older adults (47%) and least favorably by those aged 18-34 (30%). The 18 point fall is double what he has suffered among middle-aged people. He has lost hardly any ground with older Americans.
Sample sizes among Black and Hispanic adults were too small to accurately gage this trend, but Biden does continue to be viewed better by people of color than by Whites. His ratings have fallen 16 points to 48% among people of color since October 2020.
Since the 2020 election, Biden also lost support from his own party down 13 points to 82%, and down nine points to 38% among independents. There has been little change among Republicans, since so few viewed him favorably to begin with.
Despite feeling less warmly towards Biden, young adults views on Trump have not changed since October 2020, with 42% viewing him positively now as they did then. Trump is back to 44% among middle-aged adults, and is down to 41% among adults 55 and older, a seven point drop. Though people of color now view trump more favorable than they did heading into the 2020 election (35% today vs 27% then). White adults are less positive towards Trump now than in 2020, 46% vs 54%. Trumps is also down 9 points among college graduates, and down 16 points among Republicans. There is little to no change among non-college graduates, independents of Democrats.
The results of these changes is that Trump and Biden are viewed favorable by roughly equal percentages of Americans. Trump has the better image among men, young adults, White adults, non-college graduates and Republicans. White Biden is seen better by women, older Americans, people of color, college graduates and Democrats.
Middle-aged adults and independents have similar views of Biden and Trump, lining up with the national averages. In the wings, waiting for his cue, Kennedy enjoys majority-level favorable ratings. Despite his Democratic name and his long history with the party, he is viewed favorably by majorities of Republicans and independents versus about four in 10 Democrats.