How will history judge Biden's presidency? Here's what Americans said in a new poll

Brendan Rascius, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) on Jan 7, 2025

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Most Americans believe history will judge President Joe Biden’s time in office harshly, according to new polling.

In the latest Gallup poll, 54% of respondents said they think Biden will be remembered as a poor or below average president. A much smaller share, 19%, said they believed he’ll go down as an outstanding or above average president.

Combined, the figures give Biden, who has just two weeks left of his term, an unenviable net positive rating of -35.

The poll — conducted between Dec. 2-18 with 1,003 U.S. adults — asked respondents how they believed nine other recent presidents would be remembered.

Richard Nixon scored most similarly to Biden, with 12% saying he’ll go down as outstanding or above average and 54% saying he’ll be thought of as below average or poor — making for a net positive rating of -42.

George W. Bush and Donald Trump (during his first term) were the only others to have net positive ratings below zero — receiving -9 and -4, respectively.

Twenty-four percent of respondents said Bush would be remembered as outstanding or above average, while 33% said he’d be remembered as poor or below average, according to the poll, which has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Trump, meanwhile, was more polarizing, with 40% saying he’d go down as outstanding or above average, and 44% saying he’d go down as poor or below average.

In contrast, John Kennedy came out on top, with the vast majority of respondents, 70%, saying he’d be remembered favorably and just 2% saying he’d be thought of unfavorably, making for a net positive rating of 68.

Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama came in second and third with net favorability ratings of 38 and 21, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, there was a strong partisan divide in the responses, with Democrats and Republicans being more favorable to presidents of their own party.

For example, 44% of Democrats said they believe Biden will be judged favorably, while 16% said he’ll be thought of unfavorably. In contrast, most Republicans and independents — 76% and 51% — believe the president will go down in history as poor or below average.

However, Democrats rated every other Democratic president higher than Biden, with Obama receiving the highest net positive rating of 82.

Meanwhile, Republicans gave their highest rating to Trump, who received a net positive rating of 84.

Importantly, these ratings are not set in stone. Instead, they can change drastically as time goes on.

For example, George W. Bush, Carter and Trump “have seen the harsh ratings they received at the time they left the White House soften considerably over time,” according to the poll.

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