Rasmussen released two polls this week showing former President Donald Trump still has what it takes to remain popular with Republican voters, while former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is coming on strong.
Trailing Haley is President Joe Biden, the polling company’s numbers show. According to Rasmussen, “If the 2024 election were between Haley and Biden, 45% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for Haley and 41% would vote for Biden.”
Rasmussen’s daily presidential tracking poll for Friday shows Biden gets a 46 percent approval rating and 52 percent disapproval. When narrowed down, 29 percent of voters approve strongly of Biden’s job performance, while 41 percent strongly disapprove.
A separate poll shows Trump leading at 36 percent when the question is about who among the past five presidents was the best. He is followed by 30 percent supporting Barack Obama, nine percent favoring George W. Bush, and Biden bringing up the rear with Bill Clinton with eight percent each. Among all recent presidents, Trump remains the only one who consistently mentioned the importance of protecting the Second Amendment in all of his stump speeches at rallies around the country.
However, Trump’s faithful followers shouldn’t get too excited, because Trump also takes the title on the list of worst presidents during the past 30 years, at 41 percent. In that category, he is trailed by Biden (36%), Obama (5%), Bush (4%) and Clinton (3%), according to Rasmussen’s data.
Another interesting revelation is that Trump leads Haley 52-28 percent among Republican voters when they are asked who they would like to see nominated in 2024. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced whether he is even running, came in at 24 percent.
“Not surprisingly,” Rasmussen reported Friday, “party affiliation has a significant influence on which president of the past 30 years Americans consider best or worst. Among Republicans, 62% choose Trump as the best and 64% name Biden as the worst. Democrats are more likely to name Obama (52%) than Biden (17%) as the best of recent presidents, but 70% of Democrats agree Trump is the worst. Among those not affiliated with either major party, Trump (39%) edges Obama (27%) as the best of the five most recent presidents, while the choice as worst is between Biden (41%) and Trump (37%).”
The former president’s image may be improved following revelations about Hunter Biden’s laptop contents, and further revelations about how reports relating to the laptop were suppressed leading up to the 2020 election. Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan pullout and his handling of affairs with China and Russia, plus increasing concerns about his capability to perform on the job may also be a problem as 2024 looms.
