When it comes to the future of the country over the next 12 months, Americans are pessimistic, a new poll found. A second poll found that former President Donald Trump had a higher favorability rating than his successor despite overwhelmingly negative coverage by corporate and social media.
The ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted on July 23 and 24 found that 55 percent of respondents held a negative view of the direction of the country. About 45 percent of respondents said they are optimistic about the future.
When asked the same question in May, just 36 percent of respondents were pessimistic and 64 percent were optimistic.
“The decline in optimism has occurred across the board among Democrats, Republicans and independents,” wrote ABC’s Quinn Scanlan. “Optimism is down about 20 points among Democrats and Republicans and down 26 points among independents.”
Joe Biden's policies are the driving force for the pessimism.
The results of the poll match the majority of Americans’ surveyed who disapprove of Team Biden’s handling of immigration and crime, with 61 percent of Americans holding a negative view of Team Biden's handling of each of those issues.
Biden’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic also received its worst grade in the ABC News /Ipsos poll since was installed in January, with 36 percent of those surveyed disapproving of his Covid-19 policies. The share of Americans giving Biden bad grades on the coronavirus grew 8 percent since May, the pollsters said.
Americans are growing uneasy about Biden’s handling of the economy. The portion of Americans who disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economic recovery grew eight percentage points since May to 46 percent.
Meanwhile, a new poll by Rasmussen Reports found that former President Donald Trump has a higher favorability rating than Biden.
The survey found 52 percent of voters at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Trump compared to 51 percent for Biden.
“Comparing voter opinions of Biden and his two predecessors across demographic categories, the current president suffers from more intense disapproval by Republicans and doesn’t have the kind of strong support from black voters that benefited Obama,” Rasmussen Reports noted.
The poll found: "Sixty-five percent percent of Republicans have a ‘Very Unfavorable’ opinion of Biden, while just 47 percent of GOP voters now have a ‘Very Unfavorable’ opinion of Obama. And while 57 percent of black voters have ‘Very Favorable’ opinion of Obama, only 45 percent of black voters have a ‘Very Favorable’ of Biden. Perhaps more significantly, the percentage of black voters who have a ‘Very Unfavorable’ view of Biden (19%) is more than twice as large as the number of black voters whose opinion of Obama is ‘Very Unfavorable’ (9 percent)."
"Furthermore, among voters unaffiliated with either major party, the number who have a ‘Very Unfavorable’ opinion of Biden (39 percent) is equal to Trump, and much higher than Obama (26 percent)."
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