President Biden is having a difficult time competing with former President Trump on issues such as the economy and the border, despite recent job growth numbers and slowing inflation.
Biden trails Trump, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, by 23 points when voters were asked who would be a better candidate to handle the economy, according to the results of a national NBC News poll released Sunday.
Those numbers come despite Biden’s recent argument that his administration’s economic policies are starting to work, telling voters in Michigan on Thursday that “inflation is coming down” and that they had “created 800,000 manufacturing jobs.”
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Despite that, 55% of registered voters said they believe Trump would be the better candidate to steer the economy, compared to 33% who chose Biden.
Trump also boasts large leads over Biden when it comes to securing the border (+35 points), having the necessary mental and physical health to be president (+23), on dealing with crime and violence (+21). The former president also has double-digit leads over Biden when it comes to being competitive and effective (+16) and on improving America’s standing in the world (+11).
The number on being competitive and effective may be the most concerning one for Biden, according to NBC News, as it represents a massive shift from 2020, when Biden led Trump in the same question by nine points.
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“What is most concerning is the erosion of Biden’s standing against Trump compared to four years ago,” Democrat pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the poll with Republican pollster Bill McInturff, said of the results. “On every measure compared to 2020, Biden has declined. Most damning, the belief that Biden is more likely to be up to the job — the chief tenet of the Biden candidacy — has evaporated.”
That reality could be contributing to Biden’s continued decline in approval, which hit a new low for his presidency in the poll, coming in at just 37%.
Overall, the poll shows Trump leading Biden by five percentage points, 47% to 42%, among registered voters in a hypothetical 2024 general election rematch.
The poll was conducted January 26-30, surveying 1,000 registered voters and having a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.
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