Benzinga - by Shanthi Rexaline, Benzinga Editor.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden have been neck and neck in opinion polls leading up to the 2024 election. New poll results released on Friday showed negative sentiment toward both candidates.
What Happened: Both Biden and Trump received a net negative approval rating based on several metrics that measure their performances as president, according to the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research April poll.
The survey interviewed 1,204 adults between April 4-8 and the margin of sampling error for the survey was +/- 3.9 percentage points.
The survey showed that each president was viewed negatively on different issues.
Biden’s Pushbacks: For six of the eight issues, more respondents said Biden hurt a little or a lot compared to those who said he helped a lot or a little. These issues included healthcare costs, cost of living, voting rights and election security, relations with other countries, abortion laws, and immigration and border security.
The most negative perceptions were towards cost of living, immigration and border security, and relations with other countries.
Equal percentages (36%) of respondents felt Biden helped and hurt when it came to creating jobs. On climate change, 29% said he helped, 22% said he hurt and 46% said he neither helped nor hurt.
The findings do not come as a surprise as inflation spiked during Biden’s presidency. It peaked at over 9% in June 2022. Although it has come off its highs, it is still well above the central bank’s 2% target. A higher inflation rate has kept the Federal Reserve from cutting the interest rate from a 22-year high of 5.25%-5.50%.
Trump’s Pushbacks: For Trump, the disgruntlement was more with his handling of voting rights and election security, climate change, abortion laws, relations with other countries and cost of healthcare. Roughly 40% of respondents indicated that the former president helped regarding the cost of living; another 40% said he hurt.
Recent opinion polls indicate Biden has a slight lead over Trump, largely attributed to dissatisfaction over overturning the Roe v. Wade decision, which ensured reproductive rights for women. Trump has shifted his stance, now advocating for abortion decisions to be made at the state level, reversing his previous call for a nationwide ban.
On job creation and immigration and border security issues, a greater percentage of respondents said Trump helped than those who said he hurt.
Biden Vs. Trump: When asked which president did more to help people like themselves, 35% of respondents said Trump did more, 26% say Biden did more, and 30% think neither was effective.
Black people are likelier to say that Biden's presidency helped them (45%) than Trump's (10%), although 38% say that neither did more to help Black people.
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