Gallup Finally Has Some Good News for Biden

While President Biden remains an unpopular president—his approval rating in recent months has been even lower than that of his historically unpopular predecessor, according to FiveThirtyEight—polls show that he's received a boost from recent successes. According to the latest Gallup poll, Biden's approval rating is now at 44%, his highest in the year since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. In July, it was 38%. Gallup says the boost came from independents, whose approval of Biden jumped from 31% to 40%. The pollsters say his 81% approval rating among Democrats and 4% rating among Republicans was little changed month-over-month.

The only area where Biden received an overall approval rating higher than 50% was on the COVID-19 response, of which 58% of respondents, including 20% of Republicans, approved. He scored 50% on the environment and 46% on the situation in Ukraine. His lowest approval rating, 31%, was on the economy. A Reuters poll released earlier this week put Biden's approval rating at 41%, the highest Reuters has seen since early June. Gallup notes that at 44%, Biden's approval rating ahead of the midterm elections is higher than that of Barack Obama and Donald Trump before the 2014 and 2018 midterms. (More President Biden stories.)