Was Biden a good president? I'll look at how historians, polls, and policy reviews rate his time in office.
Whether Joe Biden was a good president depends on political perspective and the criteria used to judge him. His record has both major legislative achievements and significant criticisms, and public and expert evaluations differ:
Major Accomplishments Cited by Supporters
As president from January 20, 2021 – January 20, 2025, Biden:
•Signed the American Rescue Plan Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and recession
•Signed bipartisan bills on infrastructure and manufacturing
•Proposed the Build Back Better Act, part of which was incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022
•Other major legislative achievements cited include the American Rescue Plan ($1.9T COVID relief), the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law ($1.2T), the CHIPS Act ($52B semiconductor investment), and the Inflation Reduction Act ($369B climate — the largest climate legislation in US history)
•Climate & Economy: Signed the Inflation Reduction Act, investing in clean energy, capping insulin prices at $35 for seniors, and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices
•Appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, reentered the Paris Agreement, responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions and authorizing aid, and supported Finland's and Sweden's bids to join NATO
Supporters also point to job creation, infrastructure investments, and industrial policy via CHIPS and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Major Criticisms
•Inflation peaking at 9.1% and the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal were the primary drags on his approval throughout his term
•Main criticisms include handling of the economy with inflation concerns, border security and the withdrawal from Afghanistan
•Other summaries of failures cited: the Afghanistan withdrawal, a border crisis, crushing inflation, and America weakened abroad
•When voters were asked for the worst things about his presidency, the top answers were: Inflation, the state of the southern border, and the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan
•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 about his age and health led him to withdraw his candidacy for reelection in 2024
How He Is Rated
Public approval:
•Across multi-year aggregates, 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)
•As he prepared to leave the White House, only a quarter of the public viewed him as a great or good president
•Half of Democrats say Biden was a great or good president, compared with only 10% of independents and 4% of Republicans
•In his final weeks, a majority disapproved of his handling of his job, with only 39% approving
•A Gallup December survey found 54% expect Biden to be rated "below average" or "poor," producing a -35 net score comparable to Richard Nixon's -42
Historians / experts:
•A Presidents Day survey of 154 historians and presidential experts placed Joe Biden at about 14th
•In the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, historians ranked Biden 14th overall greatest president, just behind Bill Clinton (12) and ahead of Reagan (16), George H.W. Bush (19), George W. Bush (32) and Carter (22)
In short, historians as of 2024 tended to rank Biden in the middle to upper-middle tier based on legislative output and institutional actions, while contemporary public polling was much more negative, driven largely by inflation, immigration/border issues, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and age concerns.