President Biden leaves office with negative job and personal ratings as voters continue to give the economy poor marks — and say the White House has failed to make improvements.
A new Fox News survey shows that almost twice as many people think this Biden administration has made the economy worse rather than better, 52% versus 28%. Furthermore, almost all voters, 89%, say they are extremely or very concerned about inflation – up from 83% at the start of his term (2021).
Overall, 70% say the economy is in bad shape. While that’s better than the high during Biden’s term of 84% who viewed it unfavorably in July 2022, it’s also back to where things were at the start of his presidency when 69% said the same.
“Despite presiding over the world’s strongest post-pandemic economic recovery and making historic investments in infrastructure that will create millions of new jobs over the next decade, voters clearly judged Biden’s efforts on the economy as counterproductive,” he said. Democratic pollster Chris Anderson. whose firm Beacon Research conducts Fox News polls with Republican Daron Shaw. “Time will tell if history will judge him differently.”
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Only 13% of voters say they are financially ahead. Three times as many people, 42%, feel like they are falling behind – and that’s 15 points more than the 27% who felt this way almost four years ago.
Part of that increase is driven by Democrats, who are twice as likely to say they are falling behind today: 38% versus 19% in June 2021.
And almost 6 out of 10 Democrats 8 in 10 Republicans and 7 in 10 independents agree that the economy is in only fair or bad shape.
“If elections are primarily about how voters think the incumbent party handled the economy, it’s easy to understand why Democrats lost the 2024 election,” Shaw says. “Unfortunately for Biden, he remains ineffective in arguing that his policies have improved outcomes, even among his base.”
With Biden leaving, 42% of voters approve of his job performance — just 2 percentage points above his record low.
Biden’s approval rating is lower than Barack Obama (57%) and Bill Clinton (62%) at the end of their presidencies, but higher than George W. Bush (34%). About 47% approved of Donald Trump at the end of his first term.
Biden’s highest approval, 56%, came six months into his presidency (June 2021). His lowest approval rating of 40% was three points during his term (July 2022, November 2023 and October 2024).
The average job rating for his entire presidency is 44% approve versus 55% disapprove.
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Eighty percent of Democrats approve of Biden if he leaves, as do 35% of independents and 9% of Republicans. By comparison, after 100 days of the presidency, 95% of Democrats approved, as did 42% of independents and 14% of Republicans.
Views of Biden as a person are the opposite of what they were when he was elected. At the end of 2020, about 59% of voters had a favorable opinion of him, while 39% had an unfavorable opinion. The last reading shows that 40% rate him positively and 59% negatively.
That makes him less popular then Trump at the end of his first term (45% favorable, 54% unfavorable), and Obama (60-39%), Bush (49-46%) and Clinton (48-46%) at the end of their terms.
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Trump’s current favorable rating tells the story of the moment: A record 50% of voters view him positively, and 50% view him negatively.
This Fox News survey, conducted January 10-13, 2025, under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), includes interviews with a sample of 922 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter base. Respondents spoke to live interviewers on landlines (114) and mobile phones (638) or completed the survey online after receiving a text message (170). Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. The sampling error associated with the results among the subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling error, the wording and order of the questions can also influence the results. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure that respondent demographics are representative of the registered voter population. Sources for developing weight goals include the American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis, and voter base data.
Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report.
