Half of registered voters believe history will judge President Donald Trump as a “failed” president, according to a USA Today /Suffolk University poll released Thursday.
Only 16 percent of respondents said they believe Trump will be viewed as a “great” leader and 13 percent said they believe he will be seen as a “good” commander-in-chief.
Trump’s ratings are more negative than his predecessor Barack Obama’s, who was also a polarizing figure. After Obama left office, a quarter of Americans predicted that he would be viewed as a failure.
The vast majority of Republicans believe Democrat Joe Biden did not win the 2020 presidential election legitimately, according to the survey. Nonetheless, Biden’s standing has improved since he won the presidency, with his favorability ratings increasing.
A plurality of respondents said that Biden should focus on tackling the coronavirus pandemic, while a quarter of them said he should focus on improving the economy and a minority stated that improving healthcare should be his priority.
Democrats and Republicans agree on some issues, the poll suggested, with both saying that they expect Biden to significantly dismantle Trump’s legacy.
Furthermore, a majority in both groups said that Trump should attend Biden’s inauguration, which will take place on January 20 next year.
Even though a plurality of voters think history won’t be kind to Trump, most Republicans would like him to run again in 2024.
A strong majority of conservative-leaning voters said that they would support him if he was the GOP nominee, but slightly less than half said they expect him to launch a comeback presidential bid.
Similarly, a recent Fox News survey found that most of those who voted for Trump believe the election was stolen and would like him to run again in four years.
In a November column, The Washington Post ‘s Matt Bai wrote that he expects future generations to view Trump as someone who shook up the Washington establishment.
“History will say that Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, represented only a short-term correction — that the trend toward personality-based politics exploded in the years after Trump, creating a disorderly political landscape that would have been unrecognizable to previous generations.”
“They will say that if the 20th century belonged to two enduring parties and their loyalists, then the 21st belonged to a series of ‘pop-up parties’ centered on celebrities, athletes, activists and businesspeople,” Bai wrote.
He noted that there is a possibility Trump-like candidates in the future “ennoble” American politics, writing that “there are ways in which a reform-minded, independent leader, freed from inherited orthodoxies, might ultimately modernize government and restore a sense of national purpose.”
