Joe Biden Is the Least Popular President in 75 Years

President Joe Biden is the least popular American president in 75 years.

Biden is set to face off against Donald Trump in November in a rematch of their 2020 race, as both candidates appear to have secured enough delegates to win his party's nomination. But with the election just six months away, Biden is seeing a record-low approval rating amid criticism over his handling of issues such as the Israel-Hamas war and immigration.

In fact, his approval is lower than any former president going back about 75 years, according to an aggregation of polls from FiveThirtyEight.

On Day 1,202 of his presidency, only 38.6 percent of Americans are giving Biden positive marks, according to FiveThirtyEight's aggregation. No other president since the 1940s has seen an approval rating lower than 39 percent at this point in his presidency.

For a recent comparison, Trump had an approval rating of 43.9 percent on Day 1,202 of his presidency, Barack Obama had 48.7 percent, and George W. Bush had 47 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Every president starting with Harry S. Truman has had a higher approval rating than Biden. On Day 1,202 of Truman's presidency, in July 1948, his rating was just slightly higher than Biden's, at 38.9 percent. His successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was at 70.3 percent at the same point in his presidency.

Newsweek reached out to Biden's campaign for comment via email.

Biden Gets Low Marks on Economy

Biden's handling of the economy is particularly hurting his approval rating, according to a recent survey from the Harvard Center for American Political Studies and the Harris polling company. His handling of inflation, for instance, received positive marks from only 38 percent of respondents, while just 42 percent said they approved his handling of the economy.

Despite this, the rate of inflation has slowed during Biden's presidency. The rate rapidly rose throughout 2021 and 2022 as the U.S. economy began to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic but began to decline in the summer of 2022. It has stayed relatively stagnant, between 3 and 4 percent, since June 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Biden has tried to make the case that his handling of the economy successfully helped the U.S. recover from the pandemic, but Americans continue to face high prices and interest rates as well as concerns about housing affordability. Meanwhile, the U.S. added 175,000 jobs to the economy in April, a slowdown from previous months.

Other issues are less negative for Biden. Fifty-two percent of Americans said they approved of how he handled the pandemic, while 47 percent said they approved of how he's dealt with job creation. However, only 39 percent of respondents said they approved of his handling of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The poll surveyed 1,961 registered voters from April 24 to 5 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Americans generally trust Trump more than Biden on the economy and immigration, according to an ABC News/IPSOS poll. Forty-six percent of respondents preferred Trump on the economy, while 32 percent preferred Biden. Forty-seven percent favored Trump on immigration, while 30 percent favored Biden.

However, Biden has earned voters' support on other issues. On health care, 39 percent of respondents said they favor Biden, while only 34 percent favor Trump. Forty-one percent of respondents trust Biden more on the abortion issue, while only 28 percent trust Trump.

This poll was conducted from April 25 to 30 among a sample of 2,260 adults and had a sampling error of 2 percentage points.