President Joe Biden’s Approval Rating Is Higher Than Donald Trump During Any Period

According to two new polls, President Joe Biden boasts a higher approval rating after just one week in office than former President Donald Trump did in his entire presidency. The high approval rating comes after Biden kicked off his first days in office by singing a wave of executive orders, many of which reversed Trump’s own actions while in office.

Released Monday, a poll conducted by Hill-HarrisX put Biden’s first approval rating at 63% among registered voters, while 37% of respondents said they disapproved of his job in the office. By contrast, Trump reached an approval rating high of 52% in an April 2020 survey by the same pollster. Conducted on Jan. 21-22 among 941 registered voters, the poll results were partisan, with 94% of Democratic voters approving of Biden and only 30% of Republican voters approving of his time in office. Meanwhile, 62% of independents said they approved of Biden’s job.

A Morning Consult tracking poll also published Monday found similar results. Among respondents, 56% approved of Biden’s job performance, while 34% said they disapprove. The poll noted that just 46% of Americans approved of Trump’s job performance at a similar point in 2017. It also noted that Biden’s current approval rating is four percentage points higher than the former president’s highest polling point of 52%, according to a poll from Morning Consult and Politico in March 2017.

The Morning Consult tracking poll found similar bipartisan results as the Hill-HarrisX poll. According to the poll, only 18% of Republicans back Biden’s early performance, while 71% disapprove. Those numbers are similar to the shares of Democrats who said the same of Trump shortly after his 2017 inauguration. However, these numbers have risen slightly over Jan. 17-19 responses, with the number of Republicans who view Biden favorably having increased 3% and those who held unfavorable views dropping by 4%.

Yahoo News notes that Gallup has yet to release its first poll tracking Biden’s approval rating. When Trump began his term as president in January 2017, Gallup measured his approval rating at 45%. Another Gallup poll found that Trump’s approval rating fell to just 34% the week before he left office. According to Gallup, Trump’s “41% average approval rating throughout his presidency is four points lower than for any of his predecessors.”

The results come just days after Biden enjoyed another, albeit less serious, success: his inauguration ceremony enjoyed a larger TV audience than Trump’s 2017 swearing-in. According to that data, the Jan. 20 event, taking place amid the backdrop of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, drew in 39.9 million viewers. Trump’s inauguration, which also boasted an in-person crowd, had 38.35 million viewers.