President Biden begins his term in the White House with the approval of about half of Americans, according to a new Marist poll published Monday.
Forty-nine percent of respondents said they approve of Biden’s work performance in the days since he took the oath of office, the poll found. Meanwhile, 35 percent said they disapprove of the new president and 16 percent are insecure.
The poll shows that Biden is starting his first term as president in a stronger position than before President Trump
Donald Trump Biden reverses Trump’s last-minute attempt to freeze 0.4 billion programs. The first Marist poll of Trump’s presidency, released in February 2017, showed the now-former president with just 39 percent approval.
Still, a wide biased gap remains in the perception of Biden’s job performance. Ninety-one percent of Democrats gave the new president positive reviews, while 78 percent of Republicans said they disapprove of the work he does in the White House.
Meanwhile, a large number of independents – 46 percent – said they approved of Biden’s work performance so far, while 32 percent said they disapproved and 22 percent said they were insecure, according to the Marist poll.
A majority of Americans – 55 percent – believe Biden is doing more to unite the country than divide it. That includes 91 percent of Democrats, 54 percent of Independents, and 17 percent of Republicans. About a third of respondents – 35 percent – said they think Biden is increasing divisions in the US
Biden is also seen by 47 percent of Americans as working to change the country for the better. Conversely, 32 percent said they are steering the US in a worse direction, the poll found.
Still, that suggests that Americans generally have a more positive impression of Biden than Trump after he took office.
In February 2017, 38 percent of Americans said Trump was moving the country in a more positive direction. Another 43 percent said at the time that he was pushing the US in the wrong direction.
“In his first weeks in office, President Biden has achieved a higher approval rating than former President Trump at some point in his four years,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Poll. Yet Biden still hopes to convince Americans who are on the fence, especially independents, and close the huge partisan divide. That’s a bigger challenge. “
The Marist Poll is based on responses from 1,313 American adults, collected January 24-27. The margin of the sampling error is 3.3 percentage points.