Was Biden a good president? I'll pull a balanced look at his record — achievements, criticisms and how historians rate him.
Was Joe Biden a good president is a subjective question, and evaluations differ sharply depending on political perspective and what criteria are weighted most heavily.
A common summary from analysts is that Biden had a mixed, consequential presidency that combines:
> substantive policy accomplishments — in infrastructure, industry policy, drug pricing, social supports and judicial appointments — with glaring failures and political liabilities in Afghanistan, inflation control, border politics, and messaging; assessments therefore depend heavily on whether one weights durable institutional change and legislation or immediate crises and political consequences more heavily
Here is how that balance is usually described:
Major Accomplishments Cited by Supporters
•Legislative record with narrow majorities: 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.
Specifics:
•American Rescue Plan ($1.9 trillion) for COVID-19 relief
•Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act ($1.2T) - 69-30 in Senate, 228-206 in House
•CHIPS and Science Act ($280B) including $52.7 billion in direct semiconductor subsidies- 64-33 in Senate
•Inflation Reduction Act ($400B+ / $390B) - described as the nation's largest investment ever in clean energy and climate action, with an official clean energy price tag near $390 billionbut later estimates higher due to uncapped tax credits. It also capped insulin at $35 for seniors and allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
•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. At home, he healed an economy that had been distressed by the pandemic".
•U.S. image abroad sharply rebounded among allies, NATO is described as strong and unified with two-thirds of members meeting 2% GDP defense spending up from one-third in 2020, and Finland and Sweden joining.
•Strengthened partnerships in Asia with Australia, India, Japan and South Korea.
Other accomplishments often noted include job creation after the pandemic, expansion of health care benefits for veterans, first major gun safety legislation in decades, and return to the Paris Climate Agreement.
Major Criticisms Cited by Opponents
•Economy and inflation: Peak inflation of 9.1% in 2022, with critics blaming excessive stimulus for eroding wages and public trust. Underlying concerns include inflation, border security and immigration policiesand energy policies leading to higher gas prices.
•Afghanistan withdrawal: The August 2021 withdrawal resulting in 13 U.S. service member deaths, described as chaotic, disorderly and bloodyand a foreign policy disaster.
•Immigration / Border: Over 8 million migrant encounters at the southwest border from 2021 to 2024, with about 2.2 million migrants crossing illegally in 2022, an all-time high. Critics from both parties said systems were overwhelmed.
•Political liabilities: Even supporters note failures including inflation that caused hardship, the Gaza policy, and a politically disastrous re-election campaign, and that his Build Back Better proposal for $3.5 trillion was stripped of provisions like free prekindergarten and expanded child tax credit by Congress.
How He Is Rated
There is a gap between expert and public assessments:
•Historians/scholars: In the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project, he ranked 14th. That placed him as Middle-to-high among modern presidents. The pollsters noted that ranking was unusually high for a presidency without military victories.
•Public approval: Gallup reported that Biden averaged 42.2% job approval across his four years, placing him as the second-lowest average in Gallup’s post-World War II history, and his 13th-quarter average of 38.7% ranked near the bottom (277th of 314).
•Expectations for history: A Gallup survey in January 2025 found 54% of U.S. adults expect that Biden will go down in history as a below average or poor president, while 37% expect below average and 17% poor. Only 6% said outstanding and 13% above average. His -35 percentage point net positive rating ranks near the bottom of presidents Gallup surveyed.
In short, supporters tend to see Biden as an unusually productive legislative president who stabilized alliances and invested in infrastructure, semiconductors and climate, while critics point to inflation, the border surge, and the Afghanistan exit as defining failures that outweighed those achievements in voters' daily experience.