History tends to have its way with Presidents after they leave office. Even if, at the time, his actions seem to be correct, time and subsequent events can sometimes twist those actions. Ronald Reagan is heralded for ending the Cold War without a shot being fired, Jimmy Carter will be remembered for “stagflation”–and for telling Americans to turn their thermostats down to 65 degrees and put on a sweater.
But in a surprising new poll, the president you might least expect to reap the benefits of recent history is doing just that. His name: Donald Trump.
Granted, it might be a pretty easy thing to do in an era of overly high food and gas prices, high crime, and an invasion at the southern border.
But a new NBC News poll shows that Americans now view Trump’s four years in a much more favorable light. Of those surveyed, 40 percent said they believed that Donald Trump performed “better than expected.” That is a healthy 11 percent increase since the poll was last taken in 2018. Of those surveyed, 29 percent said they thought Trump performed worse than they expected, and 31 percent said Trump’s presidency went about like they expected it would.
It is a sharp contrast to President Joe Biden. When those same registered voters were asked that question, just 14 percent said they thought Joe Biden had surpassed their expectations, 42 percent said he has done a worse job than they expected, and 44 percent said Biden had performed as they expected. Independent voters, seen by both the Biden and Trump campaigns as a key voting bloc in 2024, overwhelmingly think Donald Trump has been better at the job.
Of those surveyed who said they were independents, 38 percent said Trump had performed better, a scant six percent said they believed Joe Biden had exceeded their expectations, 52 percent said Biden had underperformed, and 18 percent said Trump had been worse than what they had expected. One respondent to the poll, a woman who said she was an independent but voted for Biden in 2020 said of Biden’s performance,
“The economy is stagnant as [far as] I’m concerned. I don’t see it getting better or worse, but I do not see anything that will improve it. In 2020, he ran on bringing us together, and instead he made us further away.”
The poll was taken between January 26-30 and surveyed 1,000 registered voters.
More and more Americans are waxing nostalgic about the Trump years, and why wouldn’t they? In those years, Americans gained seven million new jobs, the unemployment rates for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and many other demographics reached an all-time low, and America became energy-independent for the first time in 70 years. The list goes on and on. It looks as though things like mean tweets are becoming less important than a healthy, personal bottom line.
That sentiment is also playing out on the campaign trail. Real Clear Politics polls have Donald Trump ahead of Joe Biden nationally by roughly two points, but Trump is leading Biden in every swing state poll by as much as seven points.
The timing of the poll is not the best for the President. On Thursday, Special Counsel Robert Hur issued his final report into the investigation into Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, stating that he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden. While the outcome of the investigation was predictable, additional information regarding Biden’s mental state, which has long been a topic of speculation, all but confirmed what many Americans have suspected.
During Biden’s interview with the special counsel, Biden reportedly could not remember the years of his term as Vice President, and could not, within a few years, remember the year his son Beau died. On Thursday evening, Biden topped off the release of the report with a disastrous press conference where he confused the Presidents of Mexico and Egypt, all while insisting that there was nothing wrong with his memory.
With a less-than-stellar economy, conflicts around the world continuing to simmer, and fallout from the special counsel’s report that is not going away any time soon, the Trump campaign’s new secret weapon might just be more Americans longing for the “good old days.”
