Donald Trump is ahead of President Joe Biden as both the election campaign and Trump’s criminal trial progress, according to a new CNN poll by SSRS.
In this anticipated rematch, people’s views about each man’s first term seem to favor Trump. Most Americans believe Trump’s presidency was successful, while a majority think Biden’s term has been a failure so far.
The poll shows Trump with 49% support among registered voters in a direct matchup with Biden, unchanged from CNN’s January poll. Biden’s support is 43%, slightly down from 45% in January.
As per the CNN report, 55% of all Americans now view Trump’s presidency as successful, while 44% see it as a failure. This is a significant change from January 2021, just before Trump left office, when 55% considered his presidency a failure.
Regarding Biden’s presidency, 61% say it has been a failure so far, while 39% think it’s been a success. This is slightly worse than in January 2022, when 57% rated his first year as a failure, and 41% considered it successful.
Republicans are more united in seeing Trump’s presidency as a success compared to Democrats regarding Biden’s term. Overall, 92% of Republicans say Trump’s presidency was successful, while only 73% of Democrats believe Biden’s has been successful.
Among independent voters, 51% view Trump’s presidency as successful, while only 37% consider Biden’s presidency a success.
There is some overlap in how people view the two recent presidents. About 14% of Americans say both presidencies were failures, while 8% say both were successes.
Nearly half of registered voters, 47%, believe Biden’s presidency has been a failure while considering Trump’s a success, while only 30% think Biden has been successful and Trump was not.
It’s common for former presidents to be viewed more positively over time, but no other modern president has tried to return to power after losing an election.
