Local jury still out on new US President Joe Biden
An overwhelming majority of Australians agree Trump was a terrible leader but aren’t convinced Biden is up to the job.
An overwhelming majority of Australians agree Donald Trump was a terrible leader but are yet to be convinced that new US President Joe Biden is up to the job.
An exclusive YouGov poll reveals that only 36 per cent of Australians rate Mr Biden a chance of being a good or great president, with 34 per cent predicting he will be average at best.
As Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese engage in a war of words over the handling of the Australia-US relationship, voters are also divided on whether Australian political leaders should be speaking out on the US political schism and making any commentary on the recent Capitol riots.
The YouGov poll of 1004 Australian voters conducted last weekend was conclusive in its assessment of Mr Trump’s presidency. Two thirds, 66 per cent, said his performance had been either poor or terrible. Only 16 per cent said he had been good or great, and 13 per cent saw him as average.
But the poll shows that while Australians are happy to see the back of Mr Trump, they are not yet convinced that Mr Biden will be a great replacement.
YouGov’s head of polling, Campbell White, said there was significant scepticism about a Biden presidency. “These results show that while most Australians are happy to see Donald Trump out of the White House, and they do expect Biden will be an improvement, they’re not completely sold on him yet,” Dr White said.
While 41 per cent of voters believed Mr Biden would be a “better” leader of the free world — a term often ascribed to US presidents — compared to Mr Trump on 13 per cent, 37 per cent of voters said neither could claim that title with credibility.
Australians also didn’t buy the Trump team’s argument that the election had been rigged, with 67 per cent agreeing the November 2020 election had been either completely or mostly free and fair. Dr White said the poll also showed Australians were conflicted when it came to our own leaders commenting on US political issues or passing judgments on leaders.
“Even in a situation where Australians have fairly clear views, such as they have on Trump, they are still quite conflicted about our leaders passing comments on foreign politics,” he said.
The poll asked voters to reflect on the recent events in the US following the election and the riots in Washington DC and make a call on whether Australian politicians should be making public commentary on such events.
Almost half, 46 per cent, said Australian political leaders should speak out in the context of the protests on the US Capitol building.
Yet 37 per cent said our political leaders should not be making any comments on American politics.
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