Was Biden's presidency judged a success? I'll survey his record and approval across the aisle.
Whether Joe Biden was a "good" president is subjective and depends on which issues and measures you prioritize. Historians, analysts and public polls offer a mixed but substantive record:
Major Legislative and Policy Accomplishments Cited by Supporters
Supporters and some analysts describe his presidency as one of remarkable accomplishment given narrow congressional margins:
•Domestic legislation: Despite holding the narrowest of partisan margins in Congress, he secured major pieces of legislation — the pandemic relief bill, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act — that advanced a number of critical, overlapping goals.
•Economy and COVID-19: As president, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and recession and signed bipartisan bills on infrastructure and manufacturing. The administration said that together with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act helped spur over $500 billion in private sector manufacturing investments
•Climate: The Inflation Reduction Act stands out as the nation's largest investment ever in clean energy and climate action.
•Foreign policy: Abroad, Biden restored the United States as the anchor of the free world while leading the successful effort to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. He also is credited with reestablishing alliances - NATO today is described as strong and unified, with two-thirds of its members now meeting the 2% GDP defense spending benchmark, up from only one-third in 2020, and Finland and Sweden joining. He reentered the Paris Agreement, imposed sanctions on Russia and authorized Ukrainian aid after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and supported Finland's and Sweden's bids to join NATO.
•Other actions: He appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, negotiated lower prices for 10 Medicare prescription drugs, and signed legislation on infrastructure, semiconductor manufacturing, gun safety incentives, and veterans' exposure to burn pits.
PolitiFact's Biden Promise Tracker, which tracked 99 campaign promises, rated about 29 as Promise Kept and 10 more as Compromise, with 3 rated Promise Broken as of mid-2024.
Criticisms and Challenges
Critics point to several failures and unmet goals:
•Afghanistan withdrawal: Biden withdrew U.S. troops from Afghanistan in a chaotic exit, after which the Taliban swiftly retook control. His approval ratings fell significantly after the withdrawal from Afghanistan and, according to reports, never recovered, with analysts saying the bungled withdrawal hurt Biden because it undercut his image.
•Inflation and economy: The country experienced high inflation and rising gas prices. Critics have pointed to high levels of migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border as well as inflation that peaked at a four-decade high, sapping consumer confidence. Though inflation later declined, public worries regarding inflation contributed to a perception that Biden was mismanaging the economy.
•Immigration: Biden also stumbled on immigration. Patrols encountered some 2.2 million migrants crossing the southern border illegally in 2022, an all-time high, forcing a pivot to more stringent measures.
•Unfinished agenda: Many Build Back Better proposals such as free prekindergarten, free community college, and expanded family leave were stripped by Congress, and efforts to codify Roe v. Wade, create a pathway to citizenship, and raise the federal minimum wage to $15 failed.
•Age and health: Concerns about Biden's age and health persisted throughout his presidency. He is the first president to turn 80 while in office, and after his performance in the first presidential debate, intensifying scrutiny led him to withdraw his candidacy for re-election in 2024.
How the Public and Polls Rated Him
Public opinion was deeply divided and overall negative by the end of his term:
•Biden began his term with over 50% approval, but ratings declined significantly.
•Gallup's averaged polls found he was the second-least popular president in its polling history, after Trump, with final approval around 36-40%. FiveThirtyEight found a final average approval of 37%, and other polls put it at 36-37%.
•As of January 2025, only a quarter of the public viewed him as a great or good president, while 54% of adults expected history will rate Biden as below-average or poor, 26% as average, and 19% as outstanding or above average.
•Views were sharply partisan: Half of Democrats say Biden was a great or good president, compared with only 10% of independents and 4% of Republicans.
Council on Foreign Relations analyst Charles Kupchan summarized the duality: Biden faced a fractured nation and world and achieved remarkable legislative and alliance successes, but fell short of his most ambitious objective of healing partisan division and left unfinished business and .
In short, supporters credit Biden with major investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, climate, and alliance management, while critics emphasize inflation, border pressures, the Afghanistan exit, and low public approval.