Voters are remembering former President Donald Trump's tenure in office as being better than they had expected, while saying that President Joe Biden is doing worse than they had imagined, according to an NBC News poll.
Out of the 1,000 registered voters surveyed from Jan. 26-30, just 14% said Biden has performed better than they expected, but 42% said Biden is doing a worse job and 44% said he has performed as they expected he would, reports NBC News on Friday.
Meanwhile, 40% of the respondents said Trump's presidency, looking back, turned out to be better than they had expected. Another 29% said his presidency was worse and 31% said it was what they had expected.
Trump's marks have gone up over time. When NBC News asked the same question in August 2018, when he was still in office, 29% said the administration was performing better than expected, 27% said it was worse, and 43% said the presidency was going about like they had expected.
The low marks for Biden were partly because of disappointment among Democrats:
- 52% of Democrats say his administration has met their expectations.
- 30% say it has been better than they expected.
- 18% said it has been worse.
But Trump had more loyalty among Republicans:
- 80% of his party said his administration was better than expected.
- 6% said it was worse.
- 24% of Republicans said it went as they had expected.
Trump also fared better than Biden among independent voters, with 38% of them saying his presidency went better than expected, 43% saying it was as they expected, and 18% saying it was worse. With Biden, only 6% said his presidency is going better than they expected, but 52% said it went worse.
Most of the respondents said that their major concerns were the economy and immigration, with many calling for Biden to close the border.
Others with low views about Biden cited his age and said that rather than unifying the country as he promised, his presidency has been divisive. Further, they said he has not delivered on other campaign promises, such as student debt reduction.
But with the 14% who said Biden has done better than they expected, many pointed out that the economy is improving and said they like how he handled the COVID pandemic, his policies on the environment and infrastructure, and how he has pushed back against Trump.
Republicans looking back at Trump said they feel the country was more secure under him, including on border security.
The poll carried a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.