President Joe Biden will leave office with far lower approval ratings than when he took office and have lower retrospective approval ratings than any he achieved during his tenure.
As Americans now look back on Biden's presidency, 37% approve of the job he has done over the past four years. That's slightly lower than any approval rating he's received while in office.
Four years ago, most Americans were optimistic about Biden being elected president, and reviews of him were initially positive. His overall approval rating is in the 60s, This is partly due to optimism that the coronavirus outbreak is under some control. But this was short-lived. That summer, after the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Biden support drops It fell further that fall amid public concerns about inflation. It never recovered.
Biden's retrospective approval rating today is lower than Trump's approval rating when he leaves office in 2021. That's well below other recent Democratic presidents, each of whom left after two terms.
Biden's approval rating has essentially hovered around 40 for much of the past few years.
These low approval ratings extend to his management of specific issues. For much of Biden's presidency, he has received negative reviews for his handling of key issues such as the economy and inflation, which are among the top concerns of Americans.
As Biden began his re-election campaign, voters repeatedly expressed doubts about whether Biden had the cognitive fitness to serve as president. Those doubts intensified after a poor performance in the presidential debates. after that, Most people don't expect He should run for president, including many in his own party.
In July, President Biden resigned as the Democratic nominee, but that may have been too late for some. Today, more than half of Democrats believe Kamala Harris would have won the presidential election if Biden had stepped down earlier, but overall the public doesn't think the timing of his exit from the race matters.
Over the past four years, Vice President Kamala Harris’s approval ratings have closely tracked those of Mr. Biden. Today, as she leaves office, 43% of Americans approve of her job as vice president over the past four years, higher than when Biden was president.
The CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted between January 15 and 17, 2025, among 2,174 nationally representative U.S. adults. The sample is weighted by gender, age, race, and education to be representative of the national adult population. U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, and the 2024 presidential election. The error margin is ±2.5 points.