Most Americans think Trump is doing better than Biden, new Harvard poll says
Back in office for seven months, most American voters think President Donald Trump is doing a better job in the White House than his most recent predecessor, a new poll suggests.
Among respondents, 54% say Trump has been better than Joe Biden as president, according to the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll for August . Pollsters added that this has improved when compared to Trump's numbers in July, which were 3 percentage points lower.
More voters, at 57%, also believe Trump deserves credit for pulling off meetings toward peace between Russia and Ukraine, the poll showed. As for Biden, 60% of voters said he could not pull these meetings off with world leaders.
Before and after Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis in May, Trump has repeatedly criticized the 46th president as being one of the " worst ." Trump has also been a frequent critic of Biden's cognitive ability, including long before their last debate and before Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
Pollsters also found that 14 out of 15 of Trump's policy positions they asked about receive majority support, including lowering prescription drug prices for Americans at 86% and deporting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes at 75%.
The only Trump policy position that did not receive a majority of support was making cost cuts to Medicaid programs by adding work requirements for those up to 64 years old, which 56% of voters oppose, according to the poll.
Jeffrey Epstein
Many voters said transparency about disgraced financier and convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein is important to their opinion about Trump, at 65% (Democrats: 76%; Republicans: 60%; independents: 59%), the poll showed. Almost the same number of voters (63%) are familiar with the Department of Justice and the FBI memo releasing their findings about Epstein, which said there was no "client list."
But 42% of voters say Trump is handling the Epstein case poorly, and 79% think there is a cover-up being handled by "powerful elites, including a majority across political parties," pollsters said. Most voters (66%) think lawmakers should pressure Trump to release more information about the Epstein case.
The last point on the Epstein case is that most voters trust independent media (52%) over official government sources like the FBI (47%), the Department of Justice (45%), and Trump and Congress (both 39%) when it comes to full transparency about Epstein and his convicted associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
U.S. National Guard and foreign wars
As the president has deployed the U.S. National Guard to Democratic cities, these deployments have been deemed by 54% of voters (Democrats: 28%; Republicans: 85%; independents: 47%) as justified and necessary in Washington, D.C. Most voters consider large American cities to be unsafe, including 63% of voters about New York City and 62% of voters about Los Angeles.
On his deployment of the National Guard to the streets of Washington, D.C., 54% of voters support Trump declaring a crime emergency in the nation's capital, while 53% oppose Trump using his authority as president to take over the Metropolitan Police Department.
Another 54% of voters see Trump's actions in D.C. as a distraction, while 73% believe that Trump will do similar actions in other cities.
However, the president's approval rate remains lower at 47%, the poll showed. Additionally, 55% of voters say Trump's policies will increase inflation. With international affairs, 59% of voters think Trump will not solve the war between Ukraine and Russia, and 64% think Trump will not solve Israel's war in Gaza.
"Trump has really solidified his political base and is maintaining every point of it," Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, said in a statement. "He is working on a lot of initiatives that will take time to pan out — but unless there is peace in one of these foreign conflicts or a clear consensus about the economy, the country will likely remain in a partisan rut."
The Harvard CAPS/Harris poll was conducted online with 2,025 registered voters in the United States between Aug. 20 and 21. The margin of error is plus or minus 2% on a 95% confidence level.
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