Gallup Poll Finds Joe Biden’s Approval Rating on the Rise

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden may represent a lot of different things to a lot of people, but the kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania, is nothing if not resilient.

Just two months after receiving the lowest approval rating of his presidency, the current occupant of the White House has seen his job approval rating rebound, reaching its highest point since last August, according to the Gallup organization.

Gallup’s latest poll, conducted between June 1 and 22, shows 43% of U.S. adults approve of the president’s job performance, a jump of four percentage points in just the past month.

The rise in Biden’s numbers coincided with Biden’s negotiating and then signing the bipartisan bill to raise the debt ceiling. By his signing the bill on June 3, the nation avoided its first-ever default on the federal debt.

At the same time, the nation’s unemployment rate remained below 4%, inflation — particularly in regard to groceries — continued to cool and the stock market remained strong.

Gallup noted that Biden’s 44% approval rating last August, which was his highest in 2022, also came after the passage of significant economic legislation — the Inflation Reduction Act.

Gallup’s pollsters said the president’s improved job rating is mostly due to the sentiments of independents, whose approval grew from 33% in May to 41% now. 

This is the highest approval rating independents have given Biden since August 2021.

At the same time, Democrats’ 82% and Republicans’ 6% current ratings are statistically similar to last month’s ratings.

While a pessimist might point out that the latest poll shows 54% of U.S. adults still disapprove of Biden’s job performance, he’s doing a heck of a lot better than Congress in that regard.

Gallup’s latest numbers show only 20% of U.S. adults think Congress is doing a good job, while 76% disapprove of its job performance.

Interestingly, that 20% approval rating is the same as Congress received last month, suggesting that, unlike Biden, it got no bump from negotiating the bipartisan debt ceiling deal.

Approval ratings of Congress are highest among Democrats (31%), while fewer than one in five independents (17%) and Republicans (14%) approve of what lawmakers are doing on Capitol Hill.

Since January 2021, Democrats’ ratings of Congress have outpaced Republicans’ by a significant margin. 

However, with control of Congress divided in 2023, Democrats’ ratings of the institution have declined, and Republicans’ ratings are generally higher than they were in 2021-2022 under full Democratic control.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue