US President-elect Joe Biden is already more popular than Donald Trump ever was, according to a new poll.
Joe Biden is the first presidential candidate in history to gather 80 million votes in an election. This came after a record turnout of 65.5%, equating to around 165 million people casting ballots.
The result of the election has seen Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris leap into planning for their administration. While Trump and his campaigners fight to keep the White House, public opinion is particularly in favor of one side.
According to the latest Gallup poll, Biden has a 55% approval rating, an increase of six points since winning the election. This jump has been attributed to wavering support for Trump across the US from Republicans, as lawsuits in bids to change the results continue to fail or be dismissed. Biden’s unfavorable rating is at 41%.
The Gallup poll was conducted between November 5-19, an important period for the Trump campaign’s challenges against a number of key battleground states.
Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped by three points to 42%, with an unfavorable rating of 57%. Over the course of his presidency, his approval rating peaked at 50% right after he won the election in 2016, but has never been able to surpass those points.
“Additionally, since 2000, the winner’s postelection favorability reached the majority level in every election except 2016, when Trump was the most personally unpopular presidential candidate in Gallup polling history,” Gallup added.
Biden has also surpassed Barrack Obama’s previous records in terms of ballots. In 2008, Obama won nearly 70 million votes, while in 2012, he amassed nearly 66 million votes. His highest-recorded approval rating across two terms was 67%.
Trump’s results — despite his contention — have also seen new records. With about 74 million votes, it’s the most ballots for a losing presidential candidate, as well as the most votes for a sitting president.
While Biden and Trump hold very different approval ratings, the results are much tighter for the political parties. The Democratic Party achieved a 45% rating, while the Republican Party achieved a 43% rating.