Was Joe Biden a good president? I'll gather a balanced look at his record — from legislative achievements to approval ratings and historians' assessments.
Was Joe Biden a good president is a subjective question, and evaluations differ depending on whether the measure is legislative impact, economic management, foreign policy, or public approval.
Joe Biden was the 46th president and served one term, from 2021 to 2025.
What supporters point to as achievements
Historians and analysts who view the presidency positively typically cite a consequential legislative record achieved with narrow majorities:
•COVID-19 response and the American Rescue Plan: In March 2021, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan. It cost $1.9 trillion, sent $1,400 payments to most Americans, and extended unemployment benefits and aid to states and cities. The administration sped up the vaccine rollout, passing 200 million shots within his first 100 days.
•Infrastructure and industrial policy: In November 2021, Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It cost about $1.2 trillion, including money already planned, and pays for roads, bridges, rail, public transit and high-speed internet. In August 2022, he signed the CHIPS and Science Act allocating billions for domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors. The Senate passed Biden's bipartisan infrastructure legislation 69-30.
•Climate, health and other legislation: On his first day he signed an order to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, and in August 2022 he signed the Inflation Reduction Act giving tax credits for clean energy. The administration cites enabling Medicare drug-price negotiationsand capping insulin at $35 a month for people on Medicare. Almost 25 million Americans signed up for health coverage during the 2025 enrollment period, compared with 12 million during the last year of the Trump administration.
•Economy and foreign policy: The administration's economic performance exceeded many forecasters' expectations, especially in job creation. Biden will be the first president under whom jobs were created during every month they were in office, and the economy created 2.23 million jobs in the final year of his term. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. and allies sent weapons and aid, and Finland joined NATO in 2023 and Sweden in 2024. Polls from August suggested the majority of Americans were more sympathetic to Ukraine than Russia and wanted to continue support.
What critics point to as failures
The same period is criticized on several fronts:
•Inflation: Prices rose fast in 2021 and 2022. Inflation reached 9.1% in June 2022, the highest in about 40 years. It averaged 5.4% per year during his time in the White House, and fell to about 3% by 2024. Critics linked the American Rescue Plan to rising prices, while supporters pointed to supply problems and the war in Ukraine.
•Immigration and border: Border crossings rose to record levels. Border agents recorded more than 2 million encounters at the southwest border in both fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023.
•Afghanistan withdrawal: In August 2021, U.S. forces left Afghanistan and the Taliban took power. A bombing at the Kabul airport killed 13 U.S. service members. The withdrawal was described as chaotic, with 69% saying Biden did a poor job handling the departure even though 54% agreed with leaving.
•Other criticisms cited include energy prices - the average price of gas passed $5 a gallon in June 2022- stalled Build Back Better and voting rights bills, and his decision to stay in the 2024 re-election race until after a poor debate performance, which some analysts say tarnished his legacy.
How the public and historians have rated him
Public approval and expert rankings have diverged:
•Public approval: His full-term average of 42.2% in Gallup polling was the second lowest of any post-World War II president. His average job approval rating of 42% suggests he would be ranked well below average by the public, with 39% in December - exactly the same as his predecessor Donald Trump's rating just before he left office. Gallup's final poll Jan. 2-15 put his final job approval at 40%.
An AP-NORC survey found only about a quarter of U.S. adults regard Biden as a 'good' or 'great' president, with about half describing both Biden's and Trump's presidencies as 'poor' or 'terrible'.
•Scholar ranking: A 2024 survey of 154 political science experts - the Presidential Greatness Project - ranked Joe Biden as the 14th best president in U.S. history, with a score of 62.66, just ahead of Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan. The ranking split by ideology: experts who identified as conservatives rated Biden No. 30, liberals 13th and moderates 20th, placing him in the middle-to-high among modern presidents.
In summary, historians assessing legislative productivity and institutional factors have tended to rate the administration more highly, while public polling during and immediately after his term was more negative, weighed down by inflation, immigration, and the Afghanistan withdrawal alongside the legislative achievements.