Via Reuters: Biden’s approval rating falls to lowest level in nearly two years-Reuters/Ipsos poll.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s public approval rating this month fell to its lowest level in almost two years, tying the lowest reading of his presidency in a warning sign for his reelection effort, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
The four-day poll, which closed on Monday, showed just 36% of Americans approve of Biden’s job performance as president, down from 38% in April. It was a return to the lowest approval rating of his presidency, last seen in July 2022. While this month’s drop was within the poll’s 3 percentage point margin of error, it could bode poorly for Biden as he faces off with Republican Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
[…]
The poll laid out Biden’s weaknesses as well as a few strengths. The state of the economy was seen as the top issue, picked by 23% of respondents as the most important problem facing the country. Some 21% saw political extremism as the top issue and 13% picked immigration.
As commenter Andy notes, this is the biggest answer to the question of why Biden is tied (or behind) Trump in many polls. Indeed, one does wonder what the numbers would look like if Trump was not also a well-known and unpopular figure.
UPDATE (James Joyner): Just to underscore the above, and add context, here is the trendline since the beginning of Biden’s presidency as measured by the FiveThirtyEight aggregate:
RealClearPolitics has roughly similar data if you prefer their version. Aside from the first few months, Biden has been underwater. (Trump was underwater for all but the first few days of his term.)
