There is only one president in recent history who has had a worse third-year job approval rating than President Biden, a new Gallup poll found.
During Biden’s third full year in office, an average of 39.8 percent of Americans gave Biden positive marks for his job performance, making Jimmy Carter the only president in Gallup’s history of polling to do worse.
At 37.4 percent, Americans viewed the 39th president more unfavorably than Biden as double digit inflation, the hostage crisis, and high gas prices rocked his tenure.
By comparison, Dwight Eisenhower had the best third-year performance at 72.1 percent. Former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Richard Nixon’s third-year averages were all below the 50 percent mark.
Biden’s third-year average was lower than both his first-year (48.9%) and second-year (41.0%) averages. Though better than his third-year average, his first- and second-year ratings also ranked as the second lowest for recent presidents, ahead of only Trump in both years.
Biden registered new personal lows of 37% job approval in April, October and November 2023 surveys.
Gallup’s latest job approval rating for Biden, from a Jan. 2-22 survey, is 41%, while 54% disapprove of how he is performing his job. Since September 2021, after the troubled withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Biden’s approval rating has ranged from the high 30s to low 40s. Before that, during the first six months of his presidency, he enjoyed majority-level approval ratings. (Gallup)
It remains to be seen whether Biden will enjoy improved marks in his fourth year, as Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and Obama did.
