About 9 months into President Biden’s term, his approval rating has fallen at a surprising rate. Two months ago, his rating dipped below 50%, and hasn’t seen any improvement since then. As of October 13th, his approval rating is now 44.5%, hitting a new all-time low. 

To compare to past presidencies and ratings, Biden’s ratings are in between where Obama and Trump were at the same point in their personal presidencies. Biden’s numbers slipped by 9 percentage points, where Obama’s had gone down by 6 and Trump’s down by 15. 

There is no singular reason for President Biden’s loss of support, but rather several compounding factors that have appeared over the past few months and become more present among society and voters, including COVID-19, Afghanistan, the infrastructure bill, and more.

Although Biden’s goal to improve vaccination rates has mostly succeeded, voters have still proven to spark conversation with the disappointment regarding mask mandates and the continued lack of normalcy around the United States 

Among voters in Biden’s base, which includes a larger number of black and Hispanic communities as well as women in comparison to most republican candidates, approval has fallen by an average of 15 points. 

While there are many reasons and situations that have presented themselves during Biden’s presidency that have introduced these concerns and disapproval, the most controversial of Biden’s decisions thus far has arguably been the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Past presidents have been saying for almost 20 years that the American presence in Afghanistan would be temporary or end soon, and Biden finally followed through with those statements made by his predecessors. The outrage came not from the withdrawal, but the way in which the troops left the country. When 13 American troops were killed in the Kabul airport attack, the President came under fire for taking people out of Afghanistan in such a disorganized way. 

Biden’s argument against these attacks has been that more would have died if the war continued, and that the United States needed to leave sooner rather than later, as the involvement in the country was involved far longer than anyone anticipated. 

As for the infrastructure bill, it has initially been supported, but hasn’t been passed and is caught up in legislative processes. Key democrats hope that once the bill is passed, ratings will go up again. 

Overall, Biden’s economic policies still have high approval, but there are a few large issues facing Biden’s administration that seem to be overshadowing other work being done. While his work continues to introduce new conversation and debate, there seems to be a divide among whether or not Biden’s impact has been overall more positive or negative.