US President Joe Biden has a higher approval rating after one week in office than Donald Trump did in his entire presidency, a new poll found Wednesday.
A Monmouth University poll showed 54 per cent of Americans approving of Biden’s performance and 30 per cent disapproving.
Trump spent most of his presidency with ratings in the low 40s, and left office on January 20 with a Gallup poll approval of just 34 per cent, a record low.
A Morning Consult tracking poll published Monday gave Biden 56 per cent approval and 34 per cent disapproval. Another poll released Monday, by Hill-HarrisX, showed Biden with 63 per cent approval.
Despite the strong showing for the Democrat, the results also demonstrate severe polarization in the United States after Trump’s four-year term.
In the Monmouth poll, Biden won 90 per cent approval from Democrats but only 47 per cent from independents and 15 per cent from Republicans.
“Overall, there seems to be more goodwill for Biden than there was for Trump, but it really breaks down along partisan lines. Right now, more people identify as Democrats than Republicans,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
According to data from the fivethirtyeight.com site, Trump was the first president in half a century not to enjoy a honeymoon period with substantially better polling in the first six months.
Barack Obama had an average of 60 per cent approval in his first half year and his predecessor George W. Bush had 53.9 per cent.
Trump, by contrast, had an average approval rating of 41.4 per cent in his first six months.
— AFP