President Joe Biden with President-elect Donald Trump and First Lady Jill Biden on November 13, 2024 (Creative Commons)
A year into Donald Trump’s presidency, a trio of polls from across the ideological spectrum all come to the same conclusion: voters say Joe Biden did better a better job.
President Trump has become “politically toxic,” Axios reports, finding that he has “squandered virtually every advantage that won him the presidency.”
A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll “found that 51% of registered voters say Trump is doing a worse job than Biden, compared with 49% who say he’s doing better.”
The right-leaning Rasmussen Reports found that “48% of likely voters say Biden did a better job as president, compared with 40% who chose Trump.”
A YouGov/Economist survey “found that 46% of U.S. adults say Trump is doing a worse job than Biden, compared with 40% who say he’s doing better.”
What were once Trump’s strengths are now his weaknesses.
“49% of adults ‘strongly disapprove’ of how Trump has handled border security and immigration, according to a new NBC News poll.”
Discover morePolitical impact analysisSame-sex marriage defenseCivil rights newsAnd when it comes to younger voters, Trump has “cratered.”
“The YouGov/Economist poll found Trump at -42 net approval among 18–29 year-olds — a 51-point swing from +9 at the start of his presidency,” Axios reported.
CNN data analyst Harry Enten recently said that Trump “built his two presidential victories on winning voters without a college degree,” adding that, “Donald Trump’s base with non-college voters is absolutely collapsing.”
The political danger for Trump is spreading beyond voters.
Punchbowl News reported on Thursday that Trump’s pressure tactics on congressional Republicans aren’t working — and his polling numbers are making his threats less effective.
“When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” Punchbowl reported. “Such is life with President Donald Trump, who’s warning that Republicans will be made to suffer — either in primaries or on Election Day — for voting against his unprecedented tariff regime.”
But Punchbowl observed, “if Trump’s approval ratings stay where they are, Republicans may continue to buck him, betting that opposing an unpopular president is smart for the midterms.”