The economy and immigration were at the forefront of voters’ minds six months into Trump’s first term, and the same is true for Biden. Two signature issues of his campaign and presidency, Trump has berated the Biden administration since leaving office for dismantling his policies. However, polling shows Republicans generally approved of Biden more than Democrats who sided Trump.
Six months into his first term, Biden has an overall approval rating of 53 percent, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. That includes about 88 percent of Democrats and 17 percent of Republicans.
At the same point in Trump’s presidency, Reuters/Ipsos polling found he had an overall approval rating of 38 percent, with only 10 percent of Democrats and 77 percent of Republicans on his side.
Biden also had a leg up on Trump when it comes to independent voters. While 52 percent of them approved of Biden’s job performance, only 26 percent backed Trump at the same point in his presidency.
It’s common for the economy to be a top issue for voters, and Americans have similar views of how Biden and Trump tackled the issue halfway through their first year in office. Both men only received a 48 percent approval rating on their handling of the economy at that particular juncture of their presidential term.
One major difference between the first six months of Trump’s presidency and the first six months of Biden’s is the COVID-19 pandemic. Closing down in person gatherings, stores and restaurants last year drove up unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression, and the economy still has yet to recover from the pandemic.
On Monday, Biden addressed the situation, touting the amount of new jobs and level of economic growth since he took office and saying “we’ve brought this economy back from the brink.”
Rising prices for cars and groceries raised concerns about inflation, but the president dismissed the worry because his experts foresaw the increased prices and expect them to be temporary.
“My administration understands that if we were to ever experience unchecked inflation over the long term that would pose real challenges to our economy,” Biden said. " There’s nobody suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way—no serious economist."
Reuters and Ipsos have been conducting the Core Political Data poll since January 2012, and is performed at least once a week with at least 1,000 adults. The goal is to keep tabs on Americans’ opinions on the country and measure how they change over time.
One issue plaguing the Biden administration is immigration, as the president’s been the target of an onslaught of attacks from Republicans for the increased number of apprehensions at the border. The administration has also faced criticism from members of their own party for Vice President Kamala Harris’ advisement that migrants not make the journey to the border and for not doing enough to stand up for undocumented immigrants and DACA recipients.
Trump seized on the influx in migrants at the border to attack Biden, cited the situation as an example of Democrats “destroying” America on multiple occasions. While Harris was being criticized for not visiting the southern border, Trump took a trip of his own and touted his border policy as being the “most successful” in American history.
However, voters don’t appear enthused about either Biden or Trump’s approach to immigration. Six months into his presidency, only 43 percent of voters approved of Trump’s handling of the issue. Biden fared even worse than Trump at the same point in his presidency at only 41 percent approval, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Currently, Democrats only have a narrow majority in the House and the Senate and historically, the president’s party loses seats in the midterm election. Thus, they have a vested interest in ensuring voters back their performance on key issues or risk a Republican majority in Congress that would put a halt to Biden’s agenda.
