Public confidence in President Biden’s stewardship of the economy is hovering below each of his two immediate predecessors as faith in political leaders on the issue has slipped across the board, according to a new survey.
Just 38% of Americans told Gallup they had a great deal or fair amount of confidence in Biden, 81, to do or recommend the right course of action on the economy.
While that figure is a slight uptick from the 35% who said last year they had confidence in Biden on the economy, it’s still the third-lowest reading in the poll dating back to 2001.
Only George W. Bush scored lower, with just 34% saying they trusted him with the economy in 2008, at the height of the Great Recession.
Confidence in Biden on the economy plummeted from a high of 57% in 2021, his first year in office, to 40% in 2022 before sinking another five points the following year.
By contrast, former President Donald Trump never scored below 42% in confidence on the economy, in 2018. The 45th president’s other three years in office saw confidence scores of 48% in 2017 and 47% in each of 2019 and 2020.
Barack Obama’s lowest economic confidence rating across his two terms was also 42%, in 2014. The 44th president scored as high as 71% when he took office and finished his tenure with an even 50% confidence rating.
Skepticism of Biden on the economy applies to other leaders as well.
Trump-appointed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell got a 39% confidence, while Republican leaders in Congress received 36%, and Democratic leadership got 38%.
Confidence in congressional leadership on the issue hasn’t broached 50% since 2009.
Much of the outlook on economic stewardship splits along party lines. More than four in five Democrats (82%) said they had faith in Biden’s decision-making, along with 34% of independents, and 6% of Republicans.
Meanwhile, 86% of Republicans said they had confidence in Trump’s handling of the economy, compared to 45% of independents and 4% of Democrats.
The poll sampled 1,001 adults April 1-22, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.
During the survey period, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released inflation data for March, which found that annual price increases checked in at a hotter-than-expected 3.5%.
So-called core inflation was even higher, at 3.8% for the 12 months ending in March.
Last week, Powell told reporters that further increases in interest rates would be “unlikely” this year.
