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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
More than half of United States citizens negatively evaluate the presidency of Joe Biden, according to a survey carried out by the television network CNN between April 18 and 23. The survey, which enquired 1,212 people of legal age, also found that the majority of voters viewed the previous presidency of Donald Trump favourably, whilst only a minority found it to be a “failure.”
“In the new poll, 60% disapprove of his handling of the job and 40% approve,” the outlet reported, highlighting that the results about Biden are almost the same as last year.
When it comes to Biden’s policy for managing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, only 28% of respondents support it, compared to 71% who expressed an opposite opinion.
Support rates also remain low when it comes to the economy: only 34% approve of Biden’s economic policy, while 70% say that “economic conditions in the US are poor.”
In relation to former president Trump, the survey showed that 55% of respondents see his presidency as a “success,” while 44% consider it a “failure.”
According to a Bloomberg report, Biden’s approval rating could fall in the coming weeks, especially among younger people, after the country approved the suspension of TikTok. Earlier this month, the president signed a law that would force the app’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd, to sell its stake by the end of the year or be banned from the US app store.
The report points out that the new law will likely alienate younger voters, who are often key to Democratic electoral victories.
“Many are already not excited about Biden’s re-election,” noted the US agency.
Although the CNN poll quizzed Americans on their opinion of Biden’s handling of health care policy, student loan debt, the economy, migration, crime, abortion and the war between Israel and Hamas, notably missing from the conversation was the president’s unrelenting support for Ukraine, arguably the pinnacle failure of his administration. It is especially curious that the Ukraine question was omitted from the survey, considering Biden recently approved a $61 billion aid package to Ukraine instead of prioritising the myriad of economic issues in the US.
According to George Beebe, a contributor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a former analyst at the CIA, the new aid package for Ukraine is an invitation to disaster, resulting in both a waste of money and, even more worryingly, will only sustain Kiev’s military needs for a few more months, not prevent Ukraine’s ultimate defeat, and lead to a waste of Ukrainian lives.
The analyst pointed out that of the announced total, only $14 billion of the aid package will be spent on acquiring weapons for Ukraine, while $8 billion in financial support will be used to keep the Ukrainian government afloat.
“The bulk of the package, however, will go toward replenishing America’s own diminished military stockpiles — which will take years to accomplish — and funding its broader operations in the region. Some of Ukraine’s more sober-minded supporters concede as much,” according to Beebe.
“The package will not bridge the enormous gap between Russia’s artillery, bomb, and missile production and that of Ukraine and its Western supporters, because the West simply lacks the manufacturing capacity to meet Ukraine’s massive needs, and this will be the case for many years to come,” he added.
Given that Biden’s policies towards Russia and Ukraine have been his greatest failure during his administration, while Trump has retained his long-held position of ending the conflict as quickly as possible, unlike the current president, it raises questions about why CNN omitted this issue from their survey.
November’s US presidential election is a turning point in international relations and will have major consequences for the projection of American power in the world. Trump’s foreign policy positions have not changed much since he left the White House in 2021, but the current global situation has drastically changed, with major wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
The two political opponents have different views regarding the US’ international insertion strategy, with Trump being more isolationist and Biden being more interventionist. Therefore, all countries, whether allies or adversaries of the Americans, seek to prepare themselves for what may happen in November, given that the results of the elections will serve as a compass for the expected behaviour of American foreign policy since when the White House undergoes an administration transition, the effects on the international system are evident given Washington’s privileged position and its power to influence institutions.
As the polls point out, Americans are unsatisfied with Biden since the domestic situation dramatically declined when he became president. Instead of dealing with the declining economic situation, ordinary Americans are angered by Biden throwing away tens upon billions of dollars to Ukraine in a war that has wide consensus, even in the West now, that Ukraine has no chance of emerging victorious.
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