Biden polls lowest in presidency as another shows even Trump is now more popular

Comes after the end of the US military operations in Afghanistan

ONU-ASAMBLEA-VACUNAS (AP)

President Joe Biden’s approval rating has sunk to its lowest levels since the beginning of his presidency, and a majority now disapprove of his performance for the first time, a Gallup poll revealed, as another poll shows former president Donald Trump more popular than him.

Gallup conducted the survey between September 1 and 17 after the United States evacuated more than 120,000 people from Afghanistan. President Biden’s approval numbers are down six points from August, when 49 per cent of those polled approved of his performance and 48 per cent disapproved.

Mr Biden saw his greatest decline with independent voters. In January, 61 per cent of self-identified independents approved of the president’s performance, while just 37 percent approve now.

Mr Biden also saw his approval with Republicans sliced in half from 12 per cent to six per cent in that same time frame, and his approval among Democrats took a slight dip from 98 per cent to 90 per cent.

The only president who has had a lower approval rating than Mr Biden at this moment in their presidency since World War II is his immediate predecessor Donald Trump.

The low numbers come as the president has faced criticism on multiple fronts, with rising coronavirus cases, an economy that has been slow to recover and most Americans expressing dissatisfaction with the United States’s exit from Afghanistan, which saw the deaths of 13 US service members in an airport bombing in Kabul .

Conversely, Vice President Kamala Harris has a slightly higher approval rating at 49 per cent, which is about the same rate that Mr Biden enjoyed when he was Barack Obama’s vice president at around the same time in his tenure. The same number disapprove of her performance, though, which is 10 points higher than Mr Biden’s in 2009.

Conversely, the New York Post reported Mr Trump’s numbers are rising in another poll. A survey released earlier this week, Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll released to The Hill found that Mr Trump and Mr Biden are statistically tied. The poll found that 49 percent of voters have an unfavorable view of Mr Biden while 47 percent of voters have an unfavorable view of Mr Trump.