Here's how history will judge Joe Biden's presidency, according to latest poll
A new Gallup poll revealed that a majority of Americans expect history will view Joe Biden’s presidency in a negative light.
According to the poll, 54% of the U.S. adults surveyed believe Biden will be remembered as a "below average" or "poor" president, while 19% say he will be evaluated as "outstanding" or "above average." About a fourth of people surveyed believe he will be remembered as "average."
That would bring Biden’s post-presidency approval rating closest to that of former President Richard Nixon, who resigned as commander in chief in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
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Gallup says Biden received more "poor" reviews than Nixon (37% vs. 30%), but Biden got more outstanding or above-average ratings.
Biden will leave office on Jan. 20 after serving one term. The oldest president to ever serve, Biden withdrew his reelection bid after a disastrous debate performance against President-elect Donald Trump in June.
FILE - President Joe Biden delivers remarks at a news conference at the Filoli Estate on November 15, 2023 in Woodside, California. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Biden’s legacy
Douglas Brinkley, a historian at Rice University, said Biden arrived as a reprieve for a nation exhausted by Trump and the pandemic.
"He was a perfect person for that moment," said Brinkley, noting that Biden proved in an era of polarization that bipartisan lawmaking was still possible. Yet voters viewed him as a placeholder, and he could never transcend the text of his speeches to visually "embody the spirit of the nation with a sense of verve, energy and optimism."
He won the nomination and then did something rare in American politics: He defeated an incumbent president, Trump, who had been a catalyst for a seething sense of polarization. He then had to withstand the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who falsely claimed that the 2020 election had been stolen.
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In March 2021, Biden launched $1.9 trillion in pandemic aid, creating a series of new programs that temporarily halved child poverty, halted evictions and contributed to the addition of 15.7 million jobs. But inflation began to rise shortly thereafter. Biden’s approval rating as measured by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research fell from 61% to 39% as of June.
He followed up with a series of executive actions to unsnarl global supply chains and a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package that not only replaced aging infrastructure but improved internet access and prepared communities to withstand climate change.
But the infrastructure bill also revealed the challenge Biden faced in getting the public to recognize his achievement because many of the projects will take decades to complete.
In 2022, Biden and his fellow Democrats followed up with two measures that reinvigorated the future of U.S. manufacturing.
The CHIPS and Science Act provided $52 billion to build factories and create institutions to make computer chips domestically, ensuring that the U.S. would have access to the most advanced semiconductors needed to power economic growth and maintain national security. There was also the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided incentives to shift away from fossil fuels and enabled Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
Biden also sought to compete more aggressively with China and rebuild alliances such as NATO. He completed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan that resulted in the death of 13 U.S. service members, an effort that was widely criticized. The president also faced criticism over his handling of the southern border with Mexico as illegal border crossings led to concerns about his handling of immigration.
He also found himself embroiled in a series of global conflicts that exposed further domestic divisions.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 worsened inflation as Trump and other Republicans questioned the value of military aid to the Ukrainians. Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel sparked a war that showed divisions within the Democratic party over whether the United States should continue to support Israel as tens of thousands of Palestinians died in months of counterattacks.
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When the then-81-year-old Democratic president showed his age in a disastrous debate against Trump in June, he lost the benefit of the doubt and withdrew as the party’s nominee. It was a humbling end to a half-century career in politics, yet hardly reflective of the full legacy of his time in the White House.
David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, told the Associated Press that history would treat Biden kinder than voters had, not just because of his legislative achievements but because he defeated Trump.
"His legacy is significant beyond all his many accomplishments," Axelrod said. "He will always be the man who stepped up and defeated a president who placed himself above our democracy.
"That, alone, is an historic accomplishment."
Who are the most popular U.S. presidents?
According to Gallup, John Kennedy is the highest-rated president– with a net rating of +68.
Ronald Reagan (+38) and Obama (+21) also received "substantially favorable" reviews.
How did George W. Bush and Donald Trump fare?
Trump and former President George W. Bush join Biden in receiving more negative than positive polling among recent presidents, with "Trump getting both relatively high positive (40%) and negative ratings (44%) for his first term and the fewest average ones (16%)."
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"Trump’s 31% ‘poor’ ratings are similar to those of Nixon, but Trump’s 17% ‘outstanding’ ratings are higher than most other presidents," according to Gallup.