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President Joe Biden is going into his State of the Union address with a litany of challenges facing the United States, and his approval rating is about the same as where former President Donald Trump's was when he gave his first State of the Union address.
As Biden takes the stage for the State of the Union, Americans are facing rising price tags amid inflation, an uncertain future as violence between Ukraine and Russia continues and an ongoing pandemic. Elected to take the country in an upward direction, Biden's approval ratings have been underwater since summer and voters aren't confident in his strategy for tackling key issues that could negatively impact Democrats in the upcoming midterms.
On the eve of his SOTU speech, Biden's average approval rating is 40.7 percent, according to Real Clear Politics, although some polls have Biden's approval rating as low as 37 percent. At this same point in Trump's presidency, his average approval rating from Real Clear Politics was statistically the same, at 40.1 percent.
Republicans have been heavily critical of Biden's actions since taking office, going after him for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. While it's likely to follow Biden to the midterms, the most pressing issue facing the president is the economy.
The economy is one of the most important issues in every election, in part because Americans can see how it impacts them directly when they're purchasing everyday items. Prices across sectors, including gas and groceries, have risen and only 37 percent of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the economy, Newsweek previously reported.
Fifty-four percent of Americans polled said the economy has gotten worse, more than double what it was during Trump's presidency in 2019. While Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to rate Biden poorly, the Democratic president is struggling with independents, as well.
Forty-two percent of independents think the economy has gotten worse under Biden and only 30 percent of independents approve of his job performance overall.
Mark Weaver, a Republican strategist, previously told Newsweek that independents are the only people Biden has a "hope of winning that he doesn't already have in his camp." As a massively polarized society, there's no chance of Republicans voting for Biden or Democrats in any significant way, so independents are the "only people that matter."
Biden's low approval rating with independents is a troubling sign for Democrats, who have to hold on to all of their seats in the Senate and most in the House to maintain control of Congress. The president's party historically loses seats during the midterms and if Republicans win one seat in the Senate and six in the House, they'll flip Congress, paving a way to block Biden's agenda in the last two years of his presidency.
Biden also has low approval ratings for his handling of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but even if he were to win over people with his strategy, Weaver didn't suspect it would be enough.
"Independents already view Biden as a failed president. On the scale of approve/disapprove there are so many rocks on that disapprove scale that even an approval on Russia can't balance it out. It would have to be multiple rocks in multiple scenarios that would even out the balance with independents," Weaver said.
Since President Harry Truman was in office, only two presidents—Trump and Gerald Ford—have had similarly low approval ratings as Biden heading into their first State of the Union, according to ABC News.
About the writer
Jenni Fink is a senior editor at Newsweek, based in New York. She leads the National News team, reporting on ... Read more