Politics
A new poll released by CNN on Sunday found that former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden nationally, 49% to 43%, and that a majority of Americans think Trump’s presidency was a success and Biden’s has been a failure.
A new poll released by CNN on Sunday found that former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden nationally, 49% to 43%, and that a majority of Americans think Trump’s presidency was a success and Biden’s has been a failure.
The poll showed that 55% of Americans look back on Trump’s presidency as successful, compared with only 39% who consider Biden’s presidency successful.
That result reflects changing perceptions of Trump’s presidency since he left office: In a CNN poll in January 2021, the numbers were exactly the opposite, with 55% of Americans viewing his term as a failure. There are indications that many voters’ memories of the Trump administration have faded or shifted since then.
The poll, which shows no improvement for Biden in the head-to-head matchup since CNN’s previous survey in January, stands in contrast with the overall trend over the past two months. Since Biden delivered his State of the Union address in early March, a series of polls — including one from The New York Times and the Siena College Research Institute released in mid-April — has shown him narrowing Trump’s advantage.
With about six months to go before Election Day, many sources of uncertainty remain.
Economic developments, events in the Gaza Strip or shifts in Biden’s policies there, and legal and legislative changes to abortion access could all shape voters’ views before they go to the polls. And looming over everything are the criminal charges against Trump, with a verdict in at least one case — the hush-money trial in New York City, which began this month — expected before November.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.