The polls hold scant good news for Joe Biden one year into his presidency
Gallup's polling over the course of the year, for example, shows a 16-point drop in approval among Democrats to 82% approval -- about on par with Trump's approval rating among Republicans at this point in his term.
Per Gallup, which has trends on first-year presidential approval dating back to Dwight Eisenhower, "The last four presidential years -- Trump's second through fourth and Biden's first -- are the four most polarized in Gallup's polling history."
But polarization alone does not explain why Biden's numbers are so low.Nearly 6 in 10 Americans said that Biden has not paid enough attention to the country's most important problems in a CNN poll in November (58%), and in December, large majorities said the US government wasn't doing enough to address violent crime (76%), inflation (72%) or disruptions in the supply chain (70%).
Biden's ratings for handling Covid-19 have generally been better than his overall approval rating.
Overall, a December CNN survey found 54% said they disapproved of the job Biden was doing helping the middle class.