Taleban, Aftermath of Afghan Takeover... Biden's Approval Rating Hits Lowest Since Inauguration

President Joe Biden of the United States [Photo by EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] U.S. President Joe Biden's approval rating in the United States has dropped to the lowest level since his inauguration. The recent rapid takeover of Afghanistan by the Islamic militant group Taliban appears to have negatively impacted President Biden's approval rating.

According to a nationwide U.S. poll conducted by Ipsos on the 16th (local time), 46% of American adults said they support President Biden's job performance. This is the lowest figure among Ipsos polls conducted since Biden's inauguration in January.

In an Ipsos poll conducted on the 13th, the approval rating was 53%. The approval rating fell by 7 percentage points in three days, during which the Taliban entered the capital Kabul on the 15th and declared victory, saying "the war is over."

Public support for President Biden's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has also deteriorated.

In a poll conducted from the 13th to the 16th by Morning Consult and the political media outlet Politico, among 1,999 voters, 49% supported President Biden's decision to withdraw U.S. troops. This is a 20 percentage point drop from the 69% support recorded in the same survey in April. Conversely, 37% of respondents opposed Biden's withdrawal decision, more than double the 16% opposition in the April survey.

Overall, support for the withdrawal has declined across party lines. Among Democratic supporters, approval for the withdrawal fell from 84% in April to 69% in this survey.

Among Republican supporters, approval dropped from 52% to 31%. Among independents, support for the withdrawal decreased from 66% to 41%.

In a national address the previous day, President Biden acknowledged that the collapse of the Afghan government occurred faster than expected but defended his withdrawal decision, stating that he would not repeat a war without national interest in a situation where the Afghan government had already given up.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.