Joe Biden is already more popular than Trump ever was, according to new poll

President-elect Joe Biden has already become more popular than Donald Trump has ever been throughout his presidency, with the Democrat achieving a 55 per cent approval rating in the latest CNN Gallup poll.

The figures show a jump of six percentage points for Mr Biden compared to polling before the election.

Amid his continued attempts to discredit and overturn the election, Mr Trump’s approval rating is now down at 42 per cent, the survey found, compared to 45 per cent prior to 3 November. 

Mr Trump’s highest approval rating was 50 per cent in a Bloomberg News poll shortly after he won the 2016 election. He also achieved a 49 per cent rating in April during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, but never exceeded the halfway mark throughout his presidency.

Analysts said the boost in Mr Biden’s ratings came from a shift in opinion among some independents and Republicans, with his rating among the latter going from just 6 per cent before the election to 12 per cent now.

While the gap between the presidential candidates has widened, their respective parties were rated very close to each other in the Gallup poll - with the Democratic Party on 45 per cent and the Republican Party on 43 per cent.

It is rare for the House majority party to be performing significantly worse in polling than their presidential candidate, said CNN analyst Harry Enten.

“And, as I've noted before, House Democratic candidates actually received less votes than Republican House candidates in key swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Biden, of course, won all of these battlegrounds and with them the presidency,” he said.

One month after the US election and with just a week to go until the electoral college meets to formalise the result, Mr Trump still has not conceded. That’s despite the fact that Mr Biden has 306 electoral college votes to Mr Trump’s 232. The Democrat has taken 51.3 per cent of the popular vote or a record-setting 81,237,902 votes.  

Mr Trump did appear on Saturday to acknowledge that Mr Biden will be entering the White House in January. At a rally for the Georgia Senate run-off, the president criticised the man who will be his successor. Mr Trump has told Republicans he will run again in 2024.