Overall, 43% of voters say they agree with Donald Trump on many or all issues, while somewhat fewer (37%) say they agree with Biden on many or all issues.
But voters are more likely to like Joe Biden’s personal conduct than Trump’s:
- 26% say they like the way Biden conducts himself, while 30% have mixed feelings and 43% do not like his conduct.
- Just 14% like Trump’s conduct, while 30% say they have mixed feelings and a 56% majority say they don’t like his conduct.
Voters on their candidate’s issues and personal conduct
Most Biden and Trump supporters generally agree with their candidate on issues, but Trump supporters are particularly likely to say this.
By contrast, a majority of Biden supporters like Biden’s personal conduct, but Trump supporters are more divided in their evaluations of Trump’s personal behavior.
Issues
Nearly nine-in-ten Trump supporters (88%) say they agree with him on many or all issues, including 41% who say they agree with him on all or nearly all issues.
Eight-in-ten Biden supporters say they agree with him on many or all issues, though just 25% say they agree with him on all or nearly all issues.
While relatively small shares of either candidate’s supporters say they agree with their candidate on only a few or no issues, Biden’s supporters are slightly more likely to say this than Trump’s (19% vs. 12%, respectively).
Conduct
About six-in-ten Biden supporters (59%) like the way Biden conducts himself, with 36% saying they have mixed feelings. Just 5% say they don’t like the way he conducts himself.
Trump supporters are far less likely to say they like the way Trump conducts himself (30%), instead holding more mixed (55%) or negative (15%) views about his conduct.
Personal traits of Biden and Trump
Voters overall give mixed assessments of Biden and Trump on some key personal traits.
Positive traits
Nearly half of voters (48%) see Biden as either very or fairly honest, 12 percentage points higher than the share of voters who describe Trump this way (36%).
Voters are also slightly more likely to view Biden as caring about the needs of ordinary people (49% vs. 44% who say this of Trump).
But Trump is seen by far more voters as “mentally sharp” than Biden is (58% vs. 24%) – a 34-point difference.
Negative traits
Identical majorities of voters (63%) describe both Biden and Trump as “embarrassing.”
Voters are considerably more likely to view Trump as “mean-spirited” than Biden: 64% of voters say this describes Trump very or fairly well, while about half as many (31%) say this about Biden.
How supporters view their own candidate’s personal traits
Biden and Trump supporters both generally attribute positive traits to their candidate, with smaller shares describing them in negative terms.
- About nine-in-ten Trump and Biden voters say “cares about the needs of ordinary people” describes their candidate at least fairly well.
- Majorities of Biden and Trump voters also view their candidates as honest. But Biden supporters are substantially more likely to view Biden as honest (92%) than Trump supporters are to say this about Trump (77%).
- While an overwhelming majority of Trump supporters (96%) view Trump as mentally sharp, a far smaller share (53%) of Biden supporters say this describes Biden very or fairly well.
- 39% of Trump supporters say “mean-spirited” describes Trump. Just 8% of Biden supporters say Biden is mean-spirited.
- At least a third of both Biden’s (37%) and Trump’s (33%) own backers characterize them as embarrassing.
Biden and Trump’s personal traits today vs. four years ago
Honesty
When Biden and Trump faced each other four years ago, voters were also more likely to view Biden as honest than to say this about Trump. Biden’s current advantage on this trait is on par with his advantage in 2020.
Mental sharpness
Today, just 24% of voters say “mentally sharp” describes Biden very or fairly well, while 58% say this trait applies to Trump. In October of 2020, voters were slightly more likely to apply this description to Trump than Biden (50% vs. 46%). But the gap is now 34 percentage points. The share of voters viewing Biden as mentally sharp has declined steadily since early 2021.
More voters (58%) view Trump as mentally sharp today than did so in October 2020 (50%).
The drop in the share of voters viewing Biden as mentally sharp has come mostly among his own supporters. While 82% viewed Biden as mentally sharp in October 2020, 53% do now. Among Trump supporters, just 2% describe Biden as mentally sharp, with 89% saying this does not describe him well at all.
Concern for ordinary people
Biden continues to be seen by more voters than Trump as someone who “cares about the needs of ordinary people.” But the 13-point edge Biden enjoyed on this trait in June 2020 is narrower today (5 points).
Confidence in Biden and Trump on issues facing the nation
Neither major party candidate wins much confidence from voters on some of the key issues facing the nation. No more than about half of voters express confidence in either candidate on any of the six issue areas asked about in this survey. And in several cases, substantially smaller shares express confidence.
Still, more voters express confidence in Trump than in Biden on immigration, the economy and foreign policy, while Biden has an advantage on abortion policy and on his ability to work with the opposing party. Nearly identical shares have confidence in Biden and Trump on Supreme Court nominations.
Greater confidence in Biden
Four-in-ten voters express confidence in Biden to work well with elected officials in the other party. About a third (32%) have confidence in Trump to do this.
And a slightly larger share of voters have confidence in Biden to make good decisions about abortion policy than say this about Trump (48% vs. 44%).
Greater confidence in Trump
Voters express greater confidence in Trump’s ability to make good decisions about immigration policy, economic policy and foreign policy.
About half or more of voters say they are very or somewhat confident in Trump’s ability to handle each of these policy areas, compared with four-in-ten or fewer who say this of Biden.
No clear advantage
Voters are about equally confident in Trump’s and Biden’s ability to select good nominees for the Supreme Court (47% say they are very or confident in each).
Supporters’ confidence in their own candidates
While voters are generally confident in their candidate’s ability to make good policy decisions, Trump’s voters express higher levels of confidence than Biden’s voters on most measures.
For instance, more than nine-in-ten Trump supporters are very or somewhat confident that Trump can make good decisions in relation to foreign, economic and immigration policy, including at least six-in-ten who say they are very confident.
Large majorities of Biden supporters express confidence in Biden on these measures, but fewer than half are very confident in his ability to handle immigration, as well as foreign and economic policies. Sizeable majorities of Trump supporters are very confident in his handling of these same issues.
However, a larger share of Biden supporters (55%) than Trump supporters (42%) are confident in their candidate to make good decisions about abortion policy.
Voter confidence in candidates on issues: 2020 vs. 2024
Voters’ confidence in Trump on the economy, foreign policy and Supreme Court appointments is nearly identical to voters’ assessments in the 2020 election.
By comparison, confidence in Biden in each of these domains is lower than it was in the 2020 election.
Half of voters expressed confidence in Biden’s ability to make good foreign policy decisions in June 2020, as did about half (48%) in his ability to make good decisions about economic policy.
Today, about four-in-ten express confidence in Biden in each of these areas.
By comparison, confidence that Trump could make good foreign policy decisions is modestly higher (from 44% to 49%), while confidence that he can make good economic decisions is about the same as it was four years ago.
Voters’ confidence in Biden’s ability to select good nominees for the Supreme Court is also lower than it was in 2020 (55% then, 47% now), as confidence in Trump’s ability to do so has changed little (49% then, 47% now).
