By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – American voters are eyeing the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump better for the economy than the president Joe Biden as the incumbent’s approval rating was lower in April than the month before, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
About 41% of respondents in the three-day poll, which ended Sunday, said Trump, who is expected to face off in the Nov. 5 presidential election, has a better approach to the economy, compared with 34% who chose Biden.
The rest gave answers where they were unsure whether either candidate was better.
Trump’s advantage on the economy, which was well outside the poll’s margin of error at seven percentage points, compared with gains of three points in March and six in February.
However, Biden had a nine-point lead over Trump — 38% to 29% — when respondents were asked who had the better approach to political extremism and protecting democracy, up from eight points in March.
Political extremism narrowly displaced the economy as the top concern for respondents in the poll.
The state of the US economy is shaping up to be one of the bigger factors weighing on Biden’s re-election hopes.
Voters have been plagued by several years of rapidly rising consumer prices, although inflation has eased significantly in recent months and the unemployment rate has been below 4% for more than two years. Biden’s age, 81, also worries voters.
In the new Reuters/Ipsos poll, the share of respondents who approved of Biden’s performance as president fell marginally to 38% from 40% in March. The online poll, which surveyed 1,016 American adults nationwide, had a margin of error of three percentage points.
Trump, 77, faces four planned criminal trials, including one that began this week on charges that he falsified company records and two others related to his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump falsely claims his 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud, including in a fiery speech shortly before hundreds of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Five people died.
The two candidates were close in public opinion polls this year, with Biden leading Trump by four points in a separate Reuters/Ipsos survey earlier this month.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)
