OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A plurality of American voters believe that former President Donald Trump’s four years in office were “better than expected,” whereas less than one in seven think the same of President Joe Biden’s term in office.
Forty percent of respondents to a nationwide poll by NBC News on Friday said that they had anticipated a “better” presidency under Trump, the New York Post reported.
31% said it was “about as expected,” and 29% said it was “worse.”
Just 14% of respondents thought Biden’s presidency was “better than expected,” while 42% thought it was “worse.”
Per the poll, 44% more people said it was “about as expected.”
Only 29% of nationally registered voters said that Trump’s presidency was “better than expected,” 27% said it was “worse,” and 43% said it was “about as expected” halfway through his term in office, according to NBC News.
Party-wise, 52% of Democrats said the Biden administration “met expectations,” 30% said it was “better than they expected,” and 18% said it had been “worse” in Friday’s poll.
In contrast, 81% of Republican voters thought the Trump administration was “better than expected,” 6% thought it was “worse,” and 24% thought it was “about as expected.”
But when it came to independent voters, the Biden administration performed horribly; just 6% of them said the president’s term had been “better than they expected,” and a staggering 52% said it had been “worse.”
Of independent voters, 18% thought the Trump administration was “worse,” 43% thought it was “about as expected,” and 38% thought it was “better” than expected.
The poll also revealed that ahead of the 2024 presidential election, registered voters’ top concerns are the US border and the economy, with those who are critical of Biden pointing to worries about his age and mental capacity.
However, several Democrats expressed dissatisfaction to NBC News regarding the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict as well as some of his most notable legislative successes.
“Nothing has touched me when it comes to Biden at all that I can say, at least, ‘Yeah, there was a trickle-down,’” New Jersey Democrat Dionne Holt, who voted for Biden in 2020, told the outlet.
Though it has been more than three years since Trump left office, Holt insisted that he was not “good for the country” and her opinion of his presidency had not changed.
The administration’s opposition to Trump, laws enacted to support US infrastructure and combat climate change, and an improving economy since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic were cited by those who still believe that Biden’s tenure has been “better than expected.”
Republican voters, on the other hand, who nostalgically recalled Trump’s administration highlighted foreign policy stability and economic growth.
“I think the economy was growing and the country was secure. Well, we had the border, and we had no wars, we had no wars with the other foreign countries,” one Illinois Republican in his mid-50s told NBC.
Some registered Democrats and independent voters gave Trump high marks for his handling of the economy and immigration, citing it as evidence that his administration performed “better than expected.”
The personal character of the 45th president, his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and his actions leading up to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, were among the reasons given by registered voters who said the administration was “worse than expected.”
NBC interviewed one thousand registered voters from January 26 to 30. Its error margin is three percentage points, plus or minus.
