Biden Can’t Sell His Crises, Domestic and Abroad

Written by Anthony Constantini

What’s happening: As 2024 dawns, President Joe Biden is facing a grim reality: voters just don’t like him. His average approval rating is just over 40 percent, according to 538’s compilation of polls. In 2024 polling, former President Donald Trump is slightly ahead of the incumbent.

• More bad polls: Gallup recently found Republicans leading Democrats on the economy and national security. Biden has tried to sell his economic policies as “Bidenomics,” but Democrats are concerned the president does not realize how bad things are. Inflated prices show no indication of dropping.

Foreign policy: Under former President Trump, no new wars or major conflicts broke out. But Biden’s term has seen a disastrous pullout from Afghanistan, the start of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, and a resumption of hostilities between Israel and Gaza.

• Note: The U.S.’s embarrassing pullout from Afghanistan cannot be overlooked as a watershed moment in the Biden presidency: it was at this point that Biden’s approval numbers plunged and never recovered.

Just like Bidenomics: Biden’s advisors are trying to make 2024 a foreign policy election now that voters support Biden’s approach to Israel. Some Biden allies are going so far as selling the idea that war abroad will help the economy at home. However, the same polls show most Americans do not wish to provide more military aid to Ukraine.

• His advisers appear to think his handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict could help him. But with so much chaos abroad and economic uncertainty at home, it is unlikely that this one issue could change his numbers significantly.