President Joe Biden’s approval rating dropped to his lowest point in May, with new polls showing growing pessimism among his own Democratic members.
Associated Press-According to a survey by the National Poll Center, only 39% of adults in the United States have approved Biden’s presidency, already down from a negative rating a month ago.
Overall, only two in ten adults say the United States is heading in the right direction or the economy is good. Both have decreased from 3 to 10 a month ago. These declines are concentrated in the Democratic Party, with only 33% of the presidential party saying the country is heading in the right direction from 49% in April.
Of particular concern to Biden prior to the midterm elections is his approval of 73% among Democrats, a significant drop from the early days of his presidency. In a 2021 AP-NORC survey, Biden’s approval rate among Democrats never fell below 82%.
The findings reflect a widespread sense of irritation in countries facing a range of challenges ranging from inflation, gun violence, and sudden shortages of infant formula to persistent infant formula. Pandemic..
“I don’t know how much it could get worse,” said Milan Ramsey, a 29-year-old high school counselor and Democrat in Santa Monica, California. Toddler son.
Ramsey believes Biden is not the fault of the financial dysfunction that led to the inability to buy the place where she grew up. But she warns that he is not implementing ambitious plans to combat climate change or improve health care.
“He hasn’t fulfilled his promise. I feel like there’s a stimulus. That was the last victory of his administration,” Ramsey said of Biden. “I think he’s tired — and I don’t blame him. He would have been tired at his age in his career.”
Republicans haven’t been warm to Biden for some time. Less than one in ten approves the treatment of the president or his economy, which is no different from last month.
Chicago nurse and Republican Jerry Transo accused him of being forced to pinch a penny after taking steps such as driving slowly to save gas after prices soared under the Biden administration. ing.
“His policies are destroying the economy,” 46-year-old Transo said of Biden, accusing him of shutting down the Keystone XL fuel pipeline to Canada and disrupting domestic energy production. “It’s a virtuous cycle of price increases.”
Overall, two-thirds of Americans oppose Biden’s treatment of the economy. This rating has risen slightly since the first two months of the year, but has remained largely unchanged over the past few months.
However, there are signs that Biden’s dissatisfaction with the economy has grown. Only 18% of Americans say Biden’s policies have done more to help than hurt the economy, down slightly from 24% in March. Fifty-one percent say they did more to hurt than help, while 30% said they didn’t make a big difference either way.
Only 18% say they did more to hurt them, while the percentage of Democrats who say they did more to help Biden’s policies fall from 45% to 37%. 44% say there is no difference.
Some Democrats blame other forces for inflation.
Manuel Morales, an internet service technician in Moline, Illinois, said he was a pandemic. War in Ukraine It had a far greater impact than Biden’s decision. But 58-year-old Democrats are now questioning the benefits of Biden’s greatest legislative achievement, the American Relief Program and its stimulus.
“It helped a lot of people, but they didn’t want to get back to work,” Morales said.
Morales has accused Biden of immigrants, another area of permanent vulnerability to the president.
Only 38% of immigrants support Biden, and Morales is disappointed with the scene where immigrants continue to cross the southern border. Although he himself is a Mexican immigrant, Morales believes that borders need to be tighter in order to expect the United States to legalize worthy immigrants who are illegally in the country. increase.
Morales also said that there must be a limit. “It is impossible to bring Central America and Mexico as a whole into this country,” he said.
Another area where Morales is making a mistake in Biden is the calm but war with Ukraine. “We spend a lot of money on Ukraine, all of which are in the red,” Morales said.
Overall, 45% of Americans agree with Biden’s treatment of US relations with Russia, and 54% disagree. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, it has been stable every month. 73% of Democrats and 15% of Republicans approve.
According to a new poll, only 21% of Americans say they have “great confidence” in Biden’s ability to deal with the situation in Ukraine. 39% say they are confident and 39% say they are almost unconfident.
Charles Penn, a retired factory worker in Huntington, Indiana, is pleased with Biden’s performance in Ukraine.
“I think he’s okay,” said 68-year-old Penn about the president.
But overall, Republican-minded independent Penn is disappointed by Biden and blames rising prices for putting pressure on his retirement.
“In the long run, Democrats have ruined things by demanding higher wages, such as raising them from $ 7 to $ 15 an hour,” said Biden’s federal minimum wage. Called for a significant increase. On the other side, if there were Republicans, they would reduce my social security. “
Still, Penn believes Biden should pay a political price.
“He’s the captain of the ship, so he’s responsible,” Penn said of the president.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,172 adults was conducted May 12-16 using samples extracted from the NORC probability-based AmeriSpeak panel designed to represent the US population. All respondents have a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.