President Joe Biden will leave the White House on Monday for the last time, ending four years of presidency and more than half a century of political work.
Biden leaves with low approval ratings, but Americans’ satisfaction with his administration has fluctuated heavily since he first took office in 2021.
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment on this story via email.
Why It Matters
President-elect Donald Trump‘s inauguration on Monday symbolizes the end of Biden’s presidency and a new era of conservative politics in the U.S. With GOP majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and a conservative hold in the Supreme Court, Biden’s departure is the end of the final foothold Democrats had in the three branches of government.
What To Know
According to polling data from Gallup, Biden’s average approval rating across his four years of power was 42.2 percent, a historically low figure. The only recent president to score lower was Biden’s predecessor and now successor Donald Trump, who had an average approval rating of 41.1 percent over the course of his first term.
Like many presidents, Biden entered the White House with high approval ratings of 57 percent, enjoying a honeymoon period from his decisive victory in the 2020 election.
Biden retained high approval ratings for the first hundred days of his administration, but the withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 led to a major shift in his popularity.
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Despite the removal of troops from Afghanistan, something that had been promised by successive presidents before him, Biden was held responsible by voters for errors in the withdrawal, which included the deaths of 13 U.S. soldiers.
Biden’s approval rating slumped to 43 percent by September 2021, and would never rise above 50 percent for the rest of his presidency. His lowest point was 36 percent in July 2024, at which point the war in Gaza was approaching its first full year of conflict.
Ironically, Biden received a small boost in his approval rating after he announced he would not be running for a second term; his surprise drop-out in July saw him climb to 45 percent approval in the following months, which was the closest he got to returning to positive numbers.
What People Are Saying
President Joe Biden wrote a farewell letter in an op-ed published by The Washington Post: “I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that’s still the case.
“America is an idea stronger than any army and larger than any ocean. It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world. That idea is that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We’ve never fully lived up to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.
“It has been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years. Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States.
“I have given my heart and my soul to our nation. And I have been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people.”
What Happens Next
President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next president on Monday. Biden is expected to vacate the White House before then.
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