Public confidence in President Biden and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to manage the economy has dropped significantly since last year amid record inflation and fears of a recession, according to a poll released Monday.
The Gallup poll found that Americans’ confidence in Mr. Biden and Mr. Powell has declined by double digits since last April.
Americans’ confidence in Democratic congressional leaders to handle the economy also has fallen sharply and now is statistically similar to the numbers for Republican congressional leaders, which remain unchanged since last year, according to the poll.
About 40% of adults say they have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence in Mr. Biden, and 43% say they have the same confidence in Mr. Powell, the poll found. Roughly 38% of voters said they believe Democratic leaders in Congress will do or recommend the right thing for the economy.
What’s more, 43% said they have “almost no” confidence that Mr. Biden will do the right thing for the economy, and 22% said the same thing about Mr. Powell.
During the same period in 2021, 57% of voters said they had a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence in Mr. Biden’s ability to handle the economy. About 55% said they had a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence in Mr. Powell, and 38% expressed similar views about Democratic leaders in Congress.
Voter views on Republican leaders remained the same, with 40% saying they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in their ability to manage the economy.
“The state of the economy is weighing on Americans’ minds, and if inflation and economic growth do not improve, the leaders Americans expect to manage the economy are likely to suffer further declines in confidence,” Gallup wrote in its poll.
Among those surveyed, 80% of Democrats said they have confidence in Mr. Biden to manage the economy, compared to 8% among Republicans.
The poll surveyed 1,018 adults between April 1-19. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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