Democrat Joe Biden's favorability ratings have risen six points since the election to 55%, while those of President Donald Trump have gone down three points to 42% during the same time period, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday.
This is in line with the historical trend of a clear majority approving of the election winner, with Trump's approval rating of 42% after his 2016 victory being the only exception this century, as he was the the most personally unpopular presidential candidate in Gallup polling history.
Other results from the survey show:
- Approval of Biden by independents went up 7 points from 48% to 55%, while his approval by Republicans increased from 6% to 12%. His approval by Democrats, which was already 95% before the election, went up one point.
- Republicans' approval of Trump has decreased 6 points to 89% in the same time period, while that of independents dropped 2 points to 36% and approval by Democrats remained the same at only 3%.
Losing presidential candidates have not always had their favorability decrease after an election loss.
For example, Sen. John McCain had a 14-point boost after losing to Barack Obama in 2008, and fellow Republican nominee Mitt Romney also had a four-point boost after his 2012 loss.
In the 2016 election, Democrat Hillary Clinton had no change in her favorability after losing to Trump.
Pollsters surveyed 1,018 adults from Nov. 5-19 for the latest survey, which has a plus or minus 4 percentage point margin of error.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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