Quinnipiac Finds Biden Approval at Just 38 Percent After Latest Decline

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President Joe Biden’s approval rating fell in October to its lowest point since he took office, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

Just 38 percent of Americans surveyed said they approved of Biden’s job performance, Quinnipiac said in its findings, a decline of 4 points compared to September. The number who said they disapproved increased by 3 points, from 50 percent to 53 percent.

The survey found his poor rating was chiefly a product of his handling of immigration and foreign policy, with 67 percent saying they disapproved of his handling of immigration and the situation on the Mexican border. Less than a third of that number, 23 percent, said they approved of his handling of the border. They disapproved of his performance on foreign policy 58-34 percent. Tax policy came in as his third-worst area, with respondents disapproving 54-37 percent.

The findings come on the heels of several weeks where Haitian immigrants  have flooded the U.S. border with Mexico, with potentially record numbers still expected to arrive in the weeks ahead. They also come a little more than a month after 13 U.S. service members were killed during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. This month, the president has been battling to tie a Democratic proposal for $3.5 trillion in new spending to a vote to lift the federal debt ceiling. The federal government is scheduled to shut down by Oct. 18 if Congress fails to act.

“Battered on trust, doubted on leadership, and challenged on overall competency, President Biden is being hammered on all sides as his approval rating continues its downward slide to a number not seen since the tough scrutiny of the Trump administration,” Quinnipiac University’s Tim Malloy said in a statement about the results.

The survey included 1,326 adults contacted between Oct. 1-4. The margin of error was 2.7 percentage points.