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President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference at the White House on March 25, 2021. (AP) President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference at the White House on March 25, 2021. (AP)

President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference at the White House on March 25, 2021. (AP)

Tom Kertscher
By Tom Kertscher April 8, 2021

No, Gallup poll does not show Biden approval rating at 11%, that’s Pants on Fire

If Your Time is short

  • Biden’s approval rating in the latest Gallup poll is 54%.

  • An averaging of approval polls says his approval rating is 53.2%.

When it comes to issues such as unaccompanied children crossing the Mexico border, President Joe Biden has his problems with the American people: Only 24% approve of his handling of that situation, according to a poll released April 5.

But a tweet widely shared on social media is wildly wrong about Biden’s approval rating overall. 

It claimed:

"New poll indicates Biden approval at 11%. The LOWEST approval rating of ANY president in American history ~ Gallup via Daily Caller."

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Biden’s approval rating is several times higher than that.

54% approval in latest Gallup poll

The April 6 Facebook post shares a March 29 tweet that makes the claim. The tweet did not include a link and it’s not clear what report from the Daily Caller, an online publication with a conservative lean, it might be referring to.

In January, the Daily Caller reported that a Gallup poll found that only 11% Americans were satisfied with the direction of the country. 

But that poll question did not ask about Biden, and the poll was taken Jan. 4 to 15, before his inauguration on Jan. 20. The question was: "In general, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time?"

In the latest Gallup poll asking about Biden’s approval rating, taken March 1 to 15, his approval rating was 54%.

Gallup asked: "Do you approve or disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president?" 

That was the third time Gallup asked the question during Biden’s presidency. The first time, in a poll taken Jan. 21 to Feb. 2, Biden’s approval rating was 57% overall and 11% among Republicans.

Gallup provides a comparison of polling for other presidents, dating back to Dwight Eisenhower in 1953, during March of their first year in office. The lowest rating was Donald Trump, at 40%, in March 2017.

FiveThirtyEight.com tracks approval rating polls, saying it takes into account each poll's quality, recency, sample size and partisan lean. As of April 8, Biden’s approval rating, as calculated by FiveThirtyEight, was 53.2%

That includes polls taken since March 29, the date of the tweet, by Global Strategy Group, Morning Consult, AP-NORC, YouGov, Rasmussen, Ipsos and IBD-TIPP. Among that batch of polls, according to FiveThirtyEight, Biden’s lowest approval rating was 47% in a Rasmussen poll taken March 31 to April 4.

Our ruling

A Facebook post shared a tweet that claimed: "New poll indicates" Joe Biden’s "approval at 11%, the lowest approval rating of any president in American history — Gallup via Daily Caller."

The latest Gallup poll shows Biden’s approval rating at 54%. A tally of approval-rating polls puts his approval rating at 53.2%. We found no reputable polls that put Biden’s approval rating at 11%.

The claim is false and ridiculous — Pants on Fire!

 

Our Sources

Facebook post, April 6, 2021

Twitter, tweet, March 29, 2021

Lead Stories, "Fact Check: President Biden's Approval Rating Is NOT 11% According To Gallup," April 7, 2021

Gallup, "Presidential Approval Ratings -- Joe Biden," accessed April 8, 2021

Gallup, "U.S. Satisfaction at 11% in Early January," Jan. 26, 2021

Daily Caller, "Poll: 11% Of Americans Satisfied With Direction Of The Country," Jan. 26, 2021

FiveThirtyEight, "How popular is Joe Biden?", April 8, 2021

Email, Charles Franklin, professor of law and public policy and director of the Marquette Law School Poll, April 8, 2021

 

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No, Gallup poll does not show Biden approval rating at 11%, that’s Pants on Fire

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