Americans believe both President Biden and former President Trump’s times in office did more harm than good, but they say so for different reasons, a new survey found.
The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs survey found that people think Biden’s presidency hurt the country due to cost of living, immigration and international relations. Those surveyed said Trump’s time in the White House hurt the country’s voting rights, election security, international relations, abortion laws and climate change.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents, and an overwhelming 87 percent of Republicans, said Biden has hurt the country over cost of living. Similarly, 56 percent of all respondents say Biden’s hurt the country over immigration and border security, with 88 percent of GOP respondents agreeing.
Biden scored better marks with respondents on issues such as creating jobs, but still earned mixed reviews; 36 percent of respondents said Biden has helped create jobs, 36 percent said he’s hurt job creation and 27 percent said neither.
Forty-seven percent of respondents think both Biden and Trump hurt the United States’s relations with other countries. Respondents stuck along party lines, with a majority of Democrats more likely to say Trump hurt the U.S. internationally and a majority of Republicans saying the same about Biden.
Forty-six percent of respondents said Trump’s term in office hurt voting rights and election laws. A majority, 75 percent, of Democrats said he hurt the electoral process, while 54 percent of Republican respondents said he helped.
Trump also received poor ratings for his stance on abortion and climate change, issues the Biden campaign is seeking to capitalize on.
While some Democrat respondents said Biden has had a negative impact in some areas, very few Republicans believe Trump had a negative impact on any issue, the survey noted.
Trump received higher marks from his party than Biden did when voters were asked about their personal benefit from their candidates’ time in office; 77 percent of Republicans said Trump did more to help them, while 52 percent of Democrats said Biden’s benefited them.
The survey was conducted April 4-8 among 1,204 people and has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.
