President-elect Joe Biden’s favorability is already higher than Donald Trump’s during the entire four years of his presidency, according to a Gallup poll.
Biden’s favorability jumped by 6 percentage points since the November 3rd election, with 55 percent of Americans viewing him favorably. That’s six points higher than Donald Trump’s peak favorability rating of 49 percent in April during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
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This is President-elect Biden’s highest favorability in this poll since February of last year before he entered the presidential race.
The jump in Biden’s favorability is due to a 7 point increased in support among independents from 48 percent to 55 percent and an increase among Republicans, from 6 percent to 12 percent. Support among Democrats remain unchanged, 96 percent.
Donald Trump’s approval rating meanwhile, is at 42 percent, down 3 points since the election. That’s mainly because of a 6 point drop among Republicans, to 89 percent.
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According to Gallup, the increase in Biden’s favorability is normal for a President-elect. “Since 2000, the winner’s postelection favorability reached the majority level in every election except 2016, when Trump was the most personally unpopular presidential candidate in Gallup polling history.”
Trump’s three-point post election decline is unique over the past six presidential election cycles. Hillary Clinton’s favorability rating was unchanged after the 2016 election. Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney saw their favorability increase by 14 and 4 points respectively after losing to President Obama in ’08 and ’12.
The Gallup poll was conducted from Nov. 5 to 19 among 1,018 adults and has a 4-point margin of error.
