Joe Biden’s Approval Rating Hits New Low

President Joe Biden is struggling for popularity among American voters ahead of his run to be reelected next year.

Polls tracked by analysis website FiveThirtyEight show Biden’s approval ratings hit an all-time low. Just over 37 percent of voters approve of his leadership since he was elected to the White House in 2020.

The numbers may concern a number of Democrats worried that a faltering Biden would hand Donald Trump the keys to the Oval Office next year.

Biden has not had a positive polling rating—that is, he has not been recorded as more popular than he is unpopular—since August 2021. This was following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the takeover by Taliban forces.

Despite a Pew Research poll from the time indicating that most Americans were in support of the policy, just 27 percent said the Biden administration had handled it well. A total of 69 percent of people were critical of Biden.

Since, Biden has faced an economy with high levels of inflation and backlash over his immigration policy which has so far, much like previous administrations this century, failed to introduce meaningful reform. The president, now 81, also faces questions over his age after several speech gaffes and physical slip-ups.

This week, the president’s son, Hunter Biden, was hit with an indictment in California that said he avoided millions in taxes and spent a lot of the money on vices including prostitution, partying and luxury cars.

The indictment, which said Hunter Biden was to be charged with nine tax charges, states money was spent on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes.”

The incumbent president had nothing to do with his son’s tax dealings, which have since been paid, but a large number of voters believe Hunter Biden “traded on his family name and proximity to power to get millions of dollars from foreign business associates.”

In September, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy confirmed there would be an impeachment inquiry conducted by the House Oversight Committee. Currently, there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by the 46th president, but the inquiry is likely to keep the issue in the headlines.

Trump, meanwhile, continues to run on a platform that appeals to his strong base. He is the clear favorite to be the Republican nominee for 2024 despite the raft of legal problems he currently faces and now looks to be pulling ahead of Biden in the polls in the race for president.

This week, a Wall Street Journal poll showed Trump leading Biden by 47 percent to 43 percent in a head-to-head match-up. Trump’s base may mean that support for him is less likely to waiver when presented with an alternative, 94 percent of Trump’s 2020 support said they would vote for him again, compared to 87 percent for Biden.

Newsweek has approached the Biden administration for comment via email.

In the Wall Street Journal poll, Trump’s lead increases to six points and he leads Biden 37 percent to 31 percent. Another 17 percent prefer other candidates.

At a fundraising event near Boston last week, Biden himself admitted he may not be running if it wasn’t Trump he was up against. “If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” he said, The Guardian reported. “We cannot let him win.”

Where Biden can secure a surge in support for him is unclear, but the Wall Street Journal poll suggests around 10 percent are undecided. The newspaper said, “Voters who are undecided on the presidential race lean Democratic in other survey questions, suggesting that they could be persuaded to back Biden nearly a year from now.”

Further potential developments involving Trump may also be a factor. The polling suggested Trump would have 45 percent of support if he were convicted of one of the 91 charges against him—he denies all of them—while 46 percent would back Biden in this scenario.

Whether growing concern among Democrats will push anyone in the party to put their name forward for election next year remains to be seen.