WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Of the five living men who have served as U.S. president, Barack Obama receives the highest favorable rating (59%) and Joe Biden the lowest (39%). George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are rated more positively than negatively, while opinions about Donald Trump are divided. Bush and Clinton are somewhat less familiar to Americans than the other three.
The results are from a Jan. 21-27 Gallup survey taken shortly after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration to a second term as president. The four other living presidents attended the inaugural ceremony. All five also attended the Jan. 9 funeral of former president Jimmy Carter.
Trump’s and Biden’s ratings are essentially unchanged from those from a survey after the 2024 election, indicating neither has gotten an image boost from the news surrounding the presidential transition. Although Trump’s ratings are about equally split between positive and negative ratings, they are among his best since Gallup first measured opinions of him in 1999. He has had only one net-positive rating to date -- 50% favorable and 38% unfavorable -- in 2005, when he was featured in the reality television show “The Apprentice” and before he entered Republican politics.
Opinions of Trump were generally poor during his 2015-2016 presidential campaign, with an average of 33% of U.S. adults viewing him positively. After he won the 2016 presidential election, his image improved, with 42% having a positive opinion of him, and this climbed further to 46% shortly after his first inauguration.
Trump’s favorability was mostly above 40% during his first term, but it dropped to 36% right before his departure in January 2021 amid a record spike in COVID-19 infections and the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. His ratings returned to the 40% level in July 2023, after he was indicted in the federal classified documents case.
Opinions of Biden -- now 39% favorable and 57% unfavorable -- are barely better than his worst evaluation since he became a well-known political figure. In June 2024, the favorable/unfavorable split for Biden was 37%/61%, given concerns about his issue positions and his age as polls showed him trailing Trump in a rematch of the 2020 election. Concerns about his age only intensified in the days after a poor performance in the first presidential debate with Trump on June 27.
The high point in Biden’s favorability was 61% in January 2017, near the end of his vice presidency. He nearly matched that in January 2021 with a 59% favorable rating immediately after being inaugurated as president.
Opinions of Obama Mostly Steady Since He Left Office
Obama’s image has generally been stable since late 2016, near the end of his presidency. A survey conducted in the days after the 2016 election found that 62% of U.S. adults had a favorable opinion of Obama, within the 58% to 63% range recorded since that time.
The high point in public favorability toward Obama, which Gallup has measured since 2006, was 78% in January 2009, less than two weeks before his inauguration as president. His lowest was 42% in November 2014, after the Republicans won control of the Senate and increased their majority in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections. Obama also had a 42% favorable rating in Gallup’s first measure of him in December 2006, but about half of Americans (47%) were not familiar with him at that time.
Bush Favorability Down Slightly as Fewer Hold Opinions of Him
Gallup last measured opinions of George W. Bush in 2017. At that time, 59% viewed him favorably, 37% unfavorably, and 5% did not have an opinion. Since then, his favorable score has dipped to 52% because more Americans (14%) are not familiar enough with him to offer an opinion. His unfavorable score of 34% is also down slightly.
The 2017 favorability rating has been the highest for Bush after his presidency. His highest favorable rating while president was 87% in November 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a rating exceeded only by 88% scores for Tiger Woods in 2000 and Colin Powell in 2002.
During a challenging second term as president, Bush’s favorable ratings dropped to as low as 32% in April 2008. Americans continued to hold a net-negative opinion of him in his first two years out of office. In 2013, four years after his presidency ended, Americans’ opinions of Bush were evenly split, and they have mostly been more positive than negative since then.
Clinton Image Improves as Negative Ratings Fall
As is the case for Bush, more Americans do not have an opinion about Clinton now (12%) than when Gallup last asked about him in 2017 (3%). The increase in unfamiliarity with Clinton has been accompanied by a sharp drop in negative opinions of him, to 41% from 52%. Meanwhile, his favorable rating has ticked up to 48% from 45%, resulting in Americans now having a net-positive view of Clinton.
Americans have evaluated Clinton more positively than negatively for much of the time since the 1992 Democratic National Convention, where he was first nominated for president. There have been exceptions, including a 39%/59% favorable/unfavorable division shortly after he left office in a cloud of controversy over pardons and keeping gifts intended for the White House. Later that year, opinions of Clinton were back to an even split, and by 2003, they had returned to being positive on balance. In August 2012, before that year’s Democratic National Convention, 69% of Americans rated Clinton positively, his personal best.
Bush Ratings Least Divided by Party
All five presidents are rated significantly better by supporters of their own party (Republicans for Trump and Bush; Democrats for Biden, Obama and Clinton) than by those of the opposition party.
The 86-percentage-point party gap in favorable ratings for Trump is the largest, with 93% of Republicans versus 7% of Democrats having a positive opinion of him. Ratings of Biden and Obama differ by at least 70 points between Democrats and Republicans, while for Clinton, the gap is 54 points.
Bush’s ratings are the most similar by party, with 15 points separating favorable ratings from Republicans (63%) and Democrats (48%). Those scores represent the lowest rating from a president’s own party and the highest from the opposition.
Democrats are significantly more positive toward Obama (96% favorable) than to either Biden (78%) or Clinton (77%).
Bottom Line
Presidential image trends tend to follow a similar pattern -- generally positive ratings around the time of their inauguration, subdued ratings while in office, usually poor ratings when their presidency ends, and improved favorability after having been out of office for some time. Obama’s trend has been an exception, with him having positive ratings near the end of his presidency that have held during his postpresidency years. If the typical historical pattern holds, Trump’s favorability rating could be expected to drop over the next four years, while Biden’s may improve.
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