Was Joe Biden a good president? I'll pull his record, results and how historians rate his term to give you a balanced view.
Was Joe Biden a good president is a subjective question, but his presidency (2021-2025) can be evaluated on legislative record, economic performance, public approval, and historians' rankings - which show a sharp divergence between expert and public assessments.
Major Legislative and Policy Accomplishments
Proponents point to what is described as a historically active legislative record:
•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).
•More specifically, the Infrastructure & Manufacturing: Passed the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve roads, bridges, and high-speed internet. The CHIPS and Science Act incentivized domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
•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.
•Other cited accomplishments include expanding the Affordable Care Act enrollment, and rejoining the Paris Agreement, expanding the Child Tax Credit, advancing racial equity executive orders, and student debt relief, and appointed the first Black woman to the US Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
On the economy:
•President Joe Biden's economic legacy includes significant job growth, with 16.6 million jobs added since he took office, and a historic low unemployment rate of 3.4%.
•Unemployment remained under 4% for the longest stretch in over 50 years.
•The administration also noted real GDP growth at an annualized rate of 3.1% in late 2024.
Foreign policy supporters also credit Biden with restoring the United States as the anchor of the free world while leading the successful effort to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression and strengthening NATO.
Major Criticisms and Vulnerabilities
Critics focus on different metrics:
•Taken together, Biden’s presidency combined tangible policy accomplishments with pronounced vulnerabilities in crisis management, inflation control and immigration.
•For millions of Americans, the Biden years became associated with rapid inflation, historically heavy migration at the southern border, a traumatic withdrawal from Afghanistan and growing questions about presidential age and transparency.
•Specific drags on his approval cited were Inflation peaking at 9.1% and the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.
•Other critiques listed include 9.1% inflation, historically high border encounters, the Afghanistan collapse and an enormous increase in federal debt, plus The Afghanistan withdrawal disaster... Inflation & skyrocketing costs... The border crisis & record-high illegal immigration.
Public Approval vs. Historian Assessment
Public approval was consistently low:
•Biden had an overall approval rating of 40%, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
•A CNN poll near the end of his term found 61% believe his presidency was a failure, with his approval rating matching a record low of 36%.
•He averaged 41% job approval during his second year in office, and analysis noted Biden’s approval rating has been underwater since August of 2021 and he will exit the presidency with an approval below 40%.
Historians and scholars rank him significantly higher:
•The Siena College Research Institute's 2022 survey ranked Biden 19th out of 45 presidents. The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert survey ranked Biden 14th. A February 2024 American Political Science Association poll of historians and scholars also ranked Biden the 14th-greatest president.
•That poll places Biden ahead of notable figures such as Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Ulysses S. Grant, and a survey of 154 historians and presidential experts also placed him in the top third while ranking his successor last.
Conclusion: A Mixed, Consequential Presidency
Most nonpartisan summaries describe the record as a mixed, consequential presidency where The record 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.
Therefore assessments depend heavily on whether one weights durable institutional change and legislation or immediate crises and political consequences more heavily.
Supporters tend to emphasize the scale of legislation, job creation, climate investment, and international coalition-building. Critics tend to emphasize cost-of-living pressures from inflation, border encounters, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and concerns about age and leadership visibility — factors that contributed to low public approval despite the legislative record.