Instead, what President Trump can say is what most presidential challengers can’t: “Was it better when I was president?” Of course, this is the subtext of the “four years ago” question. But in this case, the former is preferable for very strong reasons.
The election four years ago was a mess on certain issues that were undoubtedly unfavorable to Trump.
On Friday, The Associated Press published new polling data collected by NORC. Americans found President Trump more helpful than Joe Biden on a variety of issues.
On abortion and climate change, more people online said President Biden supported them than President Trump. The same goes for voting rights and election security. But what about health care, the cost of living, job creation, foreign policy, and borders? Trump had the advantage.
When comparing results within his own party, Trump had a much larger advantage.Democrats are better with Biden, he said. Harmful When considering cost of living and international borders, do some research online. Even on the issue of job creation — assuming we’re talking about job growth, which is the usual metric — Mr. Biden has outperformed Mr. Trump in the presidency, giving Mr. Trump a significant lead within the party.
But what’s not included here are things that were influential four years ago, like the pandemic and protests for social justice. Of course, there are good reasons not to include them. The coronavirus is still dangerous and widespread, but it is no longer the threat or public focus it was in April 2020. Also, there have been no widespread protests yet that have sparked an exchange between us. Including questions about the pandemic would certainly have been interesting, but given the realities of conducting polls, it’s clear why they didn’t.
Of course, how salient the questions included are to the election is a matter in itself. For example, climate change is a big issue for many voters, but it tends to rank low on the overall importance list. Furthermore, not all of these problems are created equal. To be sure, Trump has a big advantage on most of these issues, and Biden is doing better than Trump, but he is behind the scenes on abortion. But Biden’s advantage on abortion will almost certainly play a more important role for many voters.
The Associated Press poll also asked people to rate how each president supported specific groups by religion, gender, race and income. Respondents thought Biden had done more for blacks, Hispanics and women. Mr. Trump had an advantage among most groups, especially wealthy white men.
Notice the views on how the president has supported Muslim people. While Biden has an advantage over Trump, several people said “neither” president was helpful.
This is different Muslim Respondents provided their ratings. But it nevertheless reflects the political moment, or at least how that moment is perceived. It’s a far less favorable moment for Biden than it was four years ago.
The dangers of being an incumbent. Now Trump can simply dish out rhetoric from the outside, claiming (as he often does) that he could have handled everything much better than Biden. Many Americans respond positively to this. But that’s why President Trump may want to stop comparing now to four years ago, when he was the incumbent and the situation was much more dire.
