A balanced look at Joe Biden's presidency needs up-to-date assessments — I'll gather perspectives on his record, achievements and criticisms.
Whether Joe Biden was a "good" president is subjective and depends on which metrics and values you prioritize. Historians, pollsters, and partisan commentators have reached very different conclusions:
How historians rank him
Historians have ranked Biden relatively highly compared to public opinion:
•The Siena College Research Institute's 2022 survey ranked Biden 19th out of 45 presidents.
•The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert survey of 154 historians and presidential scholars ranked Biden 14th, placing him ahead of Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan and Ulysses S. Grant and in the top third along with Wilson and Reagan. A February 2024 American Political Science Association poll of historians and scholars also ranked Biden the 14th-greatest president.
The pollsters noted Biden's ranking was unusually high for a presidency without military victories or institutional expansion.
How the public rated him
Public approval told a different story:
•Biden began his term with 57% job approval in Gallup's first measurement and around or above 50% in his first months.
•His approval fell below 50% in summer 2021 and never recovered.
•He averaged 42.2% job approval during his four years as president, the second lowest in Gallup polling history. His final Gallup rating in Jan. 2025 was 40%.
•Gallup also found 54% of adults expected he would go down in history as a below-average or poor president.
Arguments that he was a good president - legislative and policy achievements
Supporters point to a large legislative record and economic recovery:
•Biden entered office amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic crisis, and increased polarization.
•Day one actions included restoring U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement.
•First major legislation was the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.
•He signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a ten-year plan to invest in roads, bridges, public transit, ports and broadband.
•After the Build Back Better Act failed, he signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which included significant federal investment in climate and domestic clean energy production, Affordable Care Act subsidies, and a provision allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
•Other legislation included the Respect for Marriage Act which codified same-sex and interracial marriage, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major federal gun control law in nearly three decades, the CHIPS and Science Act bolstering the semiconductor industry, and the Honoring our PACT Act expanding health care for veterans.
•He appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court — the first Black woman to serve on the court.
On the economy, supporters cite:
•Creation of over 16 million new jobs, the most of any single-term president, and breaking a 70-year record for low unemployment.
•Unemployment under 4% for the longest stretch in more than 50 years with more than 16 million jobs added and unemployment at about 4.1% at the end of his term and GDP growth around 2.8% in 2024.
•Biden oversaw the strongest economic recovery of any G7 nation post COVID-19.
Foreign policy supporters cite restoring alliances, AUKUS with Australia and the UK, support for expansion of NATO with Finland and Sweden, and providing Ukraine with over $100 billion in aid after Russia's invasion.
Arguments that he was not a good president - criticisms
Critics focus on inflation, immigration, foreign policy, and age:
•Critics can point to 9.1% inflation, historically high border encounters, the Afghanistan collapse and an enormous increase in federal debt.
•Inflation reached a 40-year high after Biden borrowed trillions, peaking at 9.1% in June 2022, outpacing wage growth for about two years, before declining to about 2.9% in December 2024. Despite significant wage increases and job growth, public worries regarding inflation contributed to a perception he was mismanaging the economy.
•On immigration, critics said President Biden caused the worst border crisis in history. Analysis of his farewell noted failures on inflation and immigration combined with other factors told a story that America was weakening.
•In foreign policy, he completed the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, after which the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized control, leading to Biden receiving bipartisan criticism. Critics called it an embarrassing deadly surrender to terrorists in Afghanistan.
•Concerns about Biden's age and mental fitness persisted throughout his presidency and were a frequent subject of discussion. He is the first president to turn 80 while in office. After his performance in the first presidential debate, intensifying scrutiny about his age led him to withdraw his candidacy for reelection in 2024.
Other critiques note that during Biden's time in office, median wages stagnated and the share of wealth of the wealthiest 0.1% continued to increase.
Bottom line
•If measured by legislative productivity, job creation, low unemployment, climate investment, and expanded alliances, supporters see Biden as an above-average, deal-making president.
•If measured by public approval (second-lowest average in modern Gallup history), inflation, border security, the chaotic Afghanistan exit, and questions about age and fitness, critics see him as below-average.
Most independent assessments note that although some political scientists and historians have rated Biden's presidency favorably, his legacy is interwoven with the re-election of Donald Trump in 2024, suggesting his political capital did not translate into lasting electoral support for his party.