By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. voters view Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as better for the economy than President Joe Biden , as the incumbent’s approval rating ticked lower in April from the previous month, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Some 41% of respondents in the three-day poll, which closed on Sunday, said Trump, who is expected to face Biden in the Nov. 5 presidential election, has the better approach to the economy, compared to 34% who picked Biden.
The rest gave answers that included not being sure or that neither candidate was better.
Trump’s advantage on the economy, which at seven percentage points was well outside the poll’s margin of error, compared to advantages of three points in March and six in February.
Biden, however, had a nine-point advantage over Trump – 38% to 29% – when respondents were asked who had the better approach to political extremism and protecting democracy, up from eight points in March.
Political extremism narrowly edged out the economy as the top concern for respondents in the poll.
The state of the U.S. economy looms as one of the larger factors weighing on Biden’s hopes of re-election.
Voters have been stung by several years of fast-rising consumer prices, though inflation has slowed considerably in recent months and the jobless rate has been below 4% for more than two years. Biden’s age, at 81, is also a concern for voters.
In the new Reuters/Ipsos poll, the share of respondents approving of Biden’s performance as president fell marginally to 38% from 40% in March. The online poll, which surveyed 1,016 U.S. adults nationwide, had a margin of error of three percentage points.
Looming over Trump, 77, are four planned criminal trials, including one that started this week on charges he falsified business records and two others tied to his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump falsely claims his 2020 election defeat resulted from fraud, including in a fiery speech shortly before hundreds of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Five people died.
The two candidates have been close in public opinion polls this year, with Biden leading Trump by four points earlier this month in a separate Reuters/Ipsos survey.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)
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