Former President Donald Trump maintains a lead over President Biden following the latter’s disastrous debate performance last month, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
According to the poll, Trump currently holds an approval rate of 44%, while Biden trails with 40% — with Trump leading Biden by double digits on three key issues.
Approximately 68% of respondents told Pew Research that they are generally unsatisfied with their available choices for the presidential election.
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Trump gives a speech at a campaign rally in Racine, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The report published Thursday is Pew’s first to come out since Biden’s confused and sometimes unintelligible performance at the first 2024 presidential debate.
Only about 24% of voters describe Biden as “mentally sharp” — a 6 point drop since January and a whopping 22% decline since Oct. 2020, according to Pew. Approximately 58% of respondents described Trump as such.
Trump’s advantage over Biden comes from his dominant position on three issues important to voters: immigration, the economy and foreign policy.
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Trump and Biden participate in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections at CNN’s studios in Atlanta, Georgia. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Trump holds a 17 point lead over Biden on immigration policy (52-35%), a 14 point lead over Biden on economic policy (54-40%), and a 10 point lead on foreign policy (49-39).
Biden netted an 8 point advantage over Trump on bipartisanship (40-32%) and a 4 point advantage on abortion issues (48-44%).
Third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received one of his largest cuts of the electorate in a major poll yet, netting 15% of respondents.
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Biden walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., after returning from a trip to Pennsylvania. (AP/Susan Walsh)
The Pew survey was conducted by live interviewers online or by telephone between July 1 and July 7. Pew Research Center contacted 9,424 adults, 7,729 of which were registered voters.
The pool of respondents was weighted to represent “gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors” in the U.S. adult population. The poll has a margin of error of approximately 1.3 percentage points.