Despite President Donald Trump's high job approval rating, he is trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by 8 percentage points, according to a national poll.
The Harvard Center for American Political Studies/Harris Poll surveyed 2,394 registered voters from April 14-16 in an online poll.
Poll results indicate:
- In a head-to-head matchup, Biden edges out Trump 54% to 46%.
- 56% of voters approved of Trump's handling of the economy.
- 51% of voters supported Trump's handling of the coronavirus.
- 49% approve of the job Trump is doing.
"President Trump continues a slow, steady improvement in his job ratings over the last six months and through the crisis," Harvard CAPS/Harris director Mark Penn told The Hill. "People still give him high marks in the economy but also back his handling in immigration, terrorism, and running the government to a growing extent along with his response to the virus."
Penn also said Trump's reelection changes are "exponentially higher" at 49% than when he was at 44% job approval.
"His personal style, not his actions, continue to hold him back," Penn told The Hill.
Despite positive support for Trump, 55% of voters said Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is better suited to manage a pandemic. Voters said Biden is more likely to care about them than Trump by a 16-point margin and said he is 59% better at bringing people together.
The poll said 55% of voters surveyed dislike Trump personally.
"Biden still does well in the head to heads, largely on his personal likability and strength in core democratic issues like healthcare, education, and climate change," said Penn. "But he lags on the key economic issue and has yet to face a direct side-by-side confrontation with Trump. Importantly, the race narrows considerably when we look at likely and very likely voters, revealing more enthusiasm in the Republican base compared to Democrats."
In looking at only "very likely" voters, Biden's lead shrunk to 4 points, suggesting Trump's voters are more energized.
As a representative online sample, the poll does not report a probability confidence interval.
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