Biden's approval rating falls to lowest since he took office

NEW YORK • President Joe Biden's approval rating has dropped by 7 percentage points and hit its lowest level so far as the US-backed Afghan government collapsed over the weekend, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The national opinion poll conducted on Monday found that 46 per cent of American adults approved of Mr Biden's performance in office, the lowest recorded in weekly polls that started when he took office in January. It is also down from the 53 per cent who felt the same way in a similar Reuters/ Ipsos poll that ran last Friday.

Mr Biden's popularity fell as the Taleban entered Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, wiping away two decades of US military presence that cost taxpayers nearly US$1 trillion (S$1.4 trillion) and thousands of American lives.

Still, a majority of both Republican and Democratic voters said the chaos was a sign that the United States should leave Afghanistan.

A separate Ipsos snap poll, also conducted on Monday, found that fewer than half of Americans liked the way Mr Biden has steered the US military and diplomatic effort in Afghanistan this year.

The President, who just last month praised Afghan forces for being "as well-equipped as any in the world", was rated worse than the other three presidents who presided over the US' longest war.

The US and Western allies continued to evacuate diplomats and civilians on Tuesday, one day after Afghans crowded into Kabul airport in a desperate attempt to flee the Taleban regime.

The Ipsos poll found that 75 per cent of Americans supported the decision to send in additional troops to secure key facilities in Afghanistan until the withdrawal is complete, and about the same number supported the evacuation of Afghans who helped US forces in the country.

Yet, Americans appeared to be largely unsettled on what to think of the war, with majorities expressing somewhat contradictory views about what the US military should have done.

For example, a majority of those aged 18 to 65 who took the Ipsos survey - 68 per cent - agreed that the war "was going to end badly, no matter when the US left", and 61 per cent wanted the US to complete its withdrawal of troops on schedule. Yet a smaller majority - 51 per cent - also agreed that "it would have been worth it for the US to leave troops in Afghanistan another year", and 50 per cent wanted to send troops back into the country to fight the Taleban.

In many cases, Republicans and Democrats appeared to share the same outlook on the war: six in 10 Republicans and seven in 10 Democrats agreed, for example, that the swift capitulation of the Afghan government "is evidence why the US should get out of the conflict".

About 44 per cent of respondents said they thought Mr Biden has done a "good job" in Afghanistan. In comparison, 51 per cent praised the way former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama handled the war.

Approval of Mr Biden's handling of Afghanistan is also lower than that of former president George W. Bush, who ordered the Afghanistan invasion and entrenched the US in the costly and ultimately futile effort to foster new leadership in the country. About 47 per cent of Americans felt Mr Bush did a good job in Afghanistan.

To be sure, the latest polling should be viewed so far as just a one-week drop: it is still too early to say how the Taleban takeover will affect Mr Biden politically.

Forty per cent of registered voters said in the Reuters/Ipsos poll that they would vote for a Democrat in next year's congressional elections, while 37 per cent said they would back a Republican.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online throughout the US. It gathered responses from 947 American adults, including 403 Democrats and 350 Republicans.

The Ipsos online snap poll gathered responses from 1,000 people, including 443 Democrats and 247 Republicans.

REUTERS