A new Gallup poll has revealed a marked decrease in public confidence in President Biden‘s handling of the economy, pointing to historically low levels of trust in his economic leadership.
In the poll, 38% of adults say they have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of confidence in Mr. Biden to do the right thing for the economy, while 46% feel the same about former President Donald Trump.
Gallup said Mr. Biden “has fared much worse as confidence in his economic management dropped precipitously in 2022 from 57% to 40% amid sharply higher inflation, and it has been below 40% since then.”
Compared with his predecessors, Mr. Biden is also performing poorly. President Obama’s confidence ratings were at least 50% each year except for one (42% in 2014). Only George W. Bush (34% at the end of the Great Recession) earned lower confidence from Americans than Mr. Biden has since last year.
The pollster noted that Americans’ confidence in their leaders is driven by differing partisan views. Broad majorities of Republicans express confidence in the economic competence of Mr. Trump (86%), the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, and 82% of Democrats hold the same view of Mr. Biden.
Americans’ confidence in Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the economy is 39%, while congressional Democrats are rated at 38% and Republicans at 36%.
The findings are particularly significant as Mr. Biden considers a reelection bid, with the survey indicating that public confidence in the economic capabilities of a sitting president is at its lowest in comparison to predecessors since such records have been kept.
“With Americans less optimistic about the state of the U.S. economy than they have been in recent months and concern about inflation persisting, their confidence in President Joe Biden to recommend or do the right thing for the economy is among the lowest Gallup has measured for any president since 2001,” the pollster said Monday.
The poll results are based on telephone interviews conducted April 1-22 with a random sample of 1,001 adults. The margin of sampling error is ± 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
• Staff can be reached at 202-636-3000.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.