Biden's Approval Rating Plummets Below Most Recent Presidents on Day 240, Polling Shows

President Joe Biden's approval rating has dropped to 46 percent, plummeting below the figure for previous presidents at this point in their term, according to new polling.

FiveThirtyEight reported the president's approval rating as of Thursday, his 240th day in office. Though Biden's rating dropped from 50.3 percent in August, it is higher than Donald Trump's 38.8 percent at the same point during his presidency.

However, the poll shows that Biden currently has less approval than Barack Obama did, with 53.4 percent on his 240th day in office, while George W. Bush had 83.2 percent and Bill Clinton 48.3 percent.

On Tuesday, a national poll of adults from Quinnipiac University showed that only 42 percent of people approve of Biden as president compared to 46 percent in early August. The survey, which was conducted between September 10 and 13, found that the president's approval rating declined into a negative area for the first time since he took office.

The university's survey had a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points and polled 1,210 people nationwide, who were asked if they approved of the way Biden is handling certain issues, including foreign policy, environment and COVID.

"If there ever was a honeymoon for President Biden, it is clearly over," said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy. "This is, with few exceptions, a poll full of troubling negatives...from overall job approval, to foreign policy, to the economy."

According to the same poll, half of the respondents disapproved of the way the president is doing his job. This marks an increase of 7 percentage points from the last survey, carried out between July 27 and August 2, which reported a 43 percent figure.

The president's popularity has been dropping since last month, according to a poll conducted by Morning Consult. It gave Biden a B rating, according to FiveThirtyEight, which is lower than Quinnipiac's A minus rating.

Morning Consult's poll, which was conducted between September 10 and 13, showed that 47 percent of participants approved of Biden's performance, compared with a 50 percent disapproval rating.

Joe Biden approval rating
Joe Biden's approval rating is down as of Thursday, his 240th day as president. Above, Biden speaks during an event in the White House's East Room on September 15. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

In August, a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll showed that Biden's approval rating had dropped, with 52 percent of respondents saying they approved of the way he was doing his job and 43 percent disapproved.

The president was also scrutinized for his decision on foreign policy, especially over the way he handled the U.S. troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan, which concluded on August 31 and ended the 20-year war.

According to Quinnipiac's national poll of adults, only 31 percent of Americans approved of the way Biden handled the Afghanistan pullout.

Newsweek contacted the White House for comment but did not hear back before publication.

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About the writer


Fatma Khaled is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. politics, world ... Read more

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