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Americans Have Dimmer View of Biden than They Did of Trump or Obama as Term Ends, Poll Finds

President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2024, about his decision to drop his Democratic presidential reelection bid. (AP)
President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2024, about his decision to drop his Democratic presidential reelection bid. (AP)
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Americans Have Dimmer View of Biden than They Did of Trump or Obama as Term Ends, Poll Finds

President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2024, about his decision to drop his Democratic presidential reelection bid. (AP)
President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2024, about his decision to drop his Democratic presidential reelection bid. (AP)

As Joe Biden prepares to leave office, Americans have a dimmer view of his presidency than they did at the end of Donald Trump's first term or Barack Obama's second, a new poll finds.

Around one-quarter of US adults said Biden was a "good" or "great" president, with less than 1 in 10 saying he was "great," according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

It’s a stark illustration of how tarnished Biden’s legacy has become, with many members of his own party seeing his Democratic presidency as merely mediocre. About one-third described Trump as "good" or "great" on the eve of the Republican's departure from the White House in 2021, according to AP-NORC polling, including about 2 in 10 who said he was "great" — even after he helped sparked a deadly insurrection that saw a mob of his supporters overrun the US Capitol.

Americans were similarly likely to describe both Biden and Trump as "poor" or "terrible" — about half said this characterized each president’s time in office — but about 3 in 10 said Biden was "average," while less than 2 in 10 said this about Trump.

Biden's standing is also much lower than the last outgoing Democratic president, Obama, who left office with about half of Americans describing his tenure as "good" or "great," according to another AP-NORC poll.

Those findings are consistent with data released this week by Gallup, which found Biden’s standing similar to that of President Richard Nixon after the Republican resigned during the Watergate scandal.

The Gallup analysis found that other presidents who left with poor ratings — including Trump, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Jimmy Carter — saw views of their presidencies grow warmer with time. But for now, few seem impressed with Biden's time in office, including a sizable chunk of Democrats.

"I’m not going to sound like ‘Star Wars,’ that he went over to the dark side and everything that might be implied there," John Cressey, a 79-year-old Democrat who lives in the Los Angeles area and does background work for films and movies, said of Biden. "But I think he just lost the pulse of the nation and that’s why Trump won."

Among supporters of Biden's party, only about 1 in 10 described his presidency as "great," while about 4 in 10 called it "good," and a similar share described it as "average."

Cressey said he saw the 82-year-old Biden declining physically and believes the president was increasingly controlled by aides. He says Biden let the situation on the US-Mexico border deteriorate into "a mess." And Cressey summed up his chagrin with Biden’s handling of the economy by saying, "Go buy a carton of eggs."

Disappointment especially high among Black and Hispanic Americans

Things weren't always so bad for Biden. About 6 in 10 Americans approved of the way he handled the presidency as he took office, according to AP-NORC polling, but by early 2022, that had fallen to about 4 in 10, where views largely stayed for the remainder of his term.

In the new poll, disappointment was especially palpable among Black and Hispanic Americans, who have traditionally leaned Democratic but shifted in larger numbers toward Trump in 2024.

The contrast with Obama was especially striking among Black Americans. About 6 in 10 said Obama, the nation's only Black president, had kept his promises at the end of his term, compared with around 3 in 10 who said the same for Biden. Similarly, about 7 in 10 Black Americans said they and their family were better off at the end of Obama’s presidency while only about a third said that about Biden.

"I feel as though the economy hasn’t progressed in a positive way since he’s been in office," said Evonte Terrell, 30, a sales manager at a telecommunications company from Detroit who described himself as a "waning Democrat."

Terrell, who is Black, said the party has become too focused on things like climate change and war while de-emphasizing rebuilding communities and helping the poor. He also bristled at Biden's pardoning of his son Hunter, saying that, "as a father, I would do the same" but "not everyone is going to have that capability."

Younger people were particularly likely to have a negative view of Biden’s presidency. Only about 1 in 10 Americans under age 30 say he was a "good" or "great" president, compared with about 4 in 10 ages 60 or older. Roughly 6 in 10 Americans ages 18 to 29 say Biden was a "poor" or "terrible" president.

Terrell, facing student loan payments, also pointed to Biden's efforts to ease educational debt that were struck down by the Supreme Court. He said that amounted to years of "just deferring" when "otherwise I could have been paying it off this entire time."

A perception of failed promises

The Biden administration helped oversee the passage of more large-scale legislation than did Trump or Obama — including on public works, microchip production and health care and promoting green jobs. The president also signed the first major gun safety package in decades.

Still, only about 2 in 10 Americans said the president made good on his campaign trail pledges. About 4 in 10 said he tried but failed to keep his promises, and a similar share said he has not kept his promises.

Mark Jeanmougin, 47, who is from Cincinnati and works in cybersecurity, voted for Trump in 2016 but backed Biden in 2020 and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

He sees Biden as a good president who set the United States up for success on issues like climate change while delivering badly needed infrastructure funding. But, he said, Biden "definitely ran into some activist judges who were saying no to some of his policies."

Jeanmougin said Biden helped improve the post-COVID-19 economy and rising inflation was an expected consequence.

"A hard landing, lots of unemployment, or a soft landing with inflation," he said. "We knew that was what was going to happen. So the idea that so many of my fellow citizens were unaware or didn’t know is really hard."

In all, about half of Democrats said Biden tried and failed to keep his campaign promises, while about 4 in 10 said he succeeded.

Few believe they are better off

For the most part, Americans don't think Biden is leaving the country in a better position than when he took office four years ago — with a few exceptions.

On the issues of creating jobs and prescription drug costs, Americans were about as likely to say Biden had a positive impact as they were to say he’d had a negative impact. A similar share said he had no impact.

But many thought he'd done more harm than good in other key areas. At least half of Americans said Biden had a negative impact on the cost of living, immigration and the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians — compared with about 2 in 10 who said he had a positive impact in each of these arenas.

He was also perceived as having more of a negative impact than a positive one on Russia's war with Ukraine, despite his administration pushing for billions of dollars in military aid to Kyiv. The negative views toward Biden regarding Israel's war against Hamas were particularly pronounced among younger voters, with slightly less than 1 in 10 Americans under age 30 saying he had a positive impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

About 4 in 10 Americans said they and their families are somewhat or much worse off than they were when Biden became president, while about one-quarter said they are much or somewhat better off.

Only about one-quarter said they and their families were worse off at the end of either Trump's or Obama’s presidency.

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With Their Los Angeles-Area Homes Still Smoldering, Families Return to Search the Ruins for Memories

In this aerial view taken from a helicopter, burned homes are seen from above during the Palisades fire near the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)
In this aerial view taken from a helicopter, burned homes are seen from above during the Palisades fire near the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)
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With Their Los Angeles-Area Homes Still Smoldering, Families Return to Search the Ruins for Memories

In this aerial view taken from a helicopter, burned homes are seen from above during the Palisades fire near the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)
In this aerial view taken from a helicopter, burned homes are seen from above during the Palisades fire near the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)

Many watched their homes burn on television in a state of shock.
Since the flames erupted in and around Los Angeles, scores of residents have returned to their still smoldering neighborhoods even as the threat of new fires persisted and the nation's second-largest city remained unsettled. For some, it was a first look at the staggering reality of what was lost as the region of 13 million people grapples with the gargantuan challenge of overcoming the disaster and rebuilding.
Calmer winds enabled firefighters to start gaining some control of the biggest blazes in metropolitan LA on Friday before gusty weather returns over the weekend to an area that hasn’t seen rain in more than eight months. But by Friday evening, new evacuations were issued in an area that includes The Getty museum as the eastern side of the Palisades Fire flared up, nearing Interstate 405, The Associated Press said.
Bridget Berg, who was at work when she saw on TV her house in Altadena erupt in flames, came back for the first time with her family two days later “just to make it real.”
Their feet crunched across the broken bits of what had been their home for 16 years.
Her kids sifted through debris on the sidewalk, finding a clay pot and a few keepsakes as they searched for Japanese wood prints they hoped to recover. Her husband pulled his hand out of rubble near the still-standing fireplace, holding up a piece of petrified wood handed down by his grandmother.
“It’s OK. It’s OK,” Berg said as much to herself as others as she took stock of the destruction, remembering the deck and pool from which her family watched fireworks. “It’s not like we just lost our house — everybody lost their house.”
Since the fires first began popping up around a densely populated, 25-mile (40-kilometer) expanse north of downtown LA, they have burned more than 12,000 structures, a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles. No cause has been identified yet for the largest fires.
Allegations of leadership failures and political blame have begun and so have investigations. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered state officials to determine why a 117 million-gallon (440 million-liter) reservoir was out of service and some hydrants ran dry, calling it “deeply troubling.” Meanwhile, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said city leadership failed her department by not providing enough money for firefighting. She also criticized the lack of water.
“When a firefighter comes up to a hydrant, we expect there’s going to be water,” she said.
At least 11 people have been killed, with five from the Palisades Fire and six from the Eaton Fire, according to the LA County medical examiner's office. Officials said they expected that number to rise as cadaver dogs go through leveled neighborhoods to assess the devastation to an area larger than San Francisco.
Officials on Friday set up a center where people could report those missing. Tens of thousands of people remained under evacuation orders, and the fires have consumed about 56 square miles (145 square kilometers).
The disaster took homes from everyone — from waiters to movie stars. The government has not yet released figures on the cost of the damage, but private firms have estimated it will climb into the tens of billions. The Walt Disney Co. announced Friday it will donate $15 million to respond to the fires and help rebuild.
The flames hit schools, churches, a synagogue, libraries, boutiques, bars, restaurants, banks and local landmarks like the Will Rogers’ Western Ranch House and a Queen Anne-style mansion in Altadena that dated back to 1887 and was commissioned for wealthy mapmaker Andrew McNally.
Neighbors wandered around ruins Friday as they described now-vanished bedrooms, recently remodeled kitchens and outdoor living spaces. Some talked about the gorgeous views that drew them to their properties, their words contrasting sharply with the scene of soot and ash.
In the coastal community of Pacific Palisades, Greg Benton surveyed where he lived for 31 years, hoping to find his great-grandmother’s wedding ring in the wreckage.
“We just had just had Christmas morning right over here, right in front of that chimney. And this is what’s left,” he said, pointing to the blackened rubble that was once his living room. “It’s those small family heirlooms that are the ones that really hurt the most.”
Elsewhere in the city, people at collection sites picked through cardboard boxes of donated items to restart their lives.
Firefighters on Friday afternoon had made progress for the first time on the Eaton Fire north of Pasadena, which has burned more than 7,000 structures. Officials said Friday most evacuation orders for the area were lifted.
LA Mayor Karen Bass, who faces a critical test of her leadership as her city endures its greatest crisis in decades, said several smaller fires also were stopped.
Crews earlier Friday had been gaining ground on the Palisades Fire, which burned 5,300 structures and is the most destructive in LA's history.
California National Guard troops arrived on the streets of Altadena before dawn to help protect property in the fire evacuation zone, and evening curfews were in effect to prevent looting after several earlier arrests.
The level of devastation is jarring even in a state that regularly confronts massive wildfires.
Anna Yeager said she and her husband agonized over going back to their beloved Altadena neighborhood near Pasadena after fleeing with their 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, their two dogs and some clothes. A neighbor told them their house was gone.
Now she regrets not grabbing her children’s artwork, her husband’s treasured cookbooks, family photos, and jewelry from her mom, who died in 2012, and her husband’s grandmother, who survived Auschwitz.
When the couple returned, they saw blocks of only “chimney after chimney."
"Power lines everywhere. Fires still going everywhere” she said, adding that when they walked up to their home “it was just dust.”
Charred grapefruits littered their yard around a blackened tree, a few still hanging from its branches.
Yeager’s neighborhood of Tudor homes was planning to celebrate its 100th anniversary in May.
“You build a world for yourself and your family, and you feel safe in that world and things like this happen that you cannot control,” she said. “It’s devastating."
There were remnants of the front porch where Yeager had photographed her children nearly daily since 2020 and had planned to keep doing that until they reached high school. That gave her hope.
“The porch is still there and it’s to me, it’s a sign to rebuild and not leave,” she said. “You know, it’s like saying, ‘Hey, I’m still here. You can still do this.’”