A new Zogby Poll® shows business leaders approve of President Joe Biden much more than they do of former President Trump.
At the moment, Biden is experiencing a sky high job approval rating, very similar to a successful wartime president or a president overseeing a super-charged economy. After not screwing-up his belated first press conference, Biden's popularity continues to soar. At the press conference, the president mostly took scripted and easy questions, which at times he was not able to fully answer. The whole event was treated as a triumph by Biden's handlers.
Truth be told, businesses large and small could care less what is coming out of Biden's mouth these days. It is raining stimulus and citizens and businesses are scooping up the Federal Reserve's "helicopter money." This deficit blowout will have to be repaid someday either through excruciating budget cuts, inflation and/or higher taxes (yes, money is not free!).
At the moment businesses cannot help but love Biden and his FDR-esque monetary stimulus. Businesses of all sizes, regions, and sectors were very favorable of Biden-43% of surveyed decision makers strongly approved of his job performance (overall, 69% at least somewhat approved/26 at least somewhat disapproved), and 70% of decision makers in the West region approved of Biden. Three quarters of companies with 500+ employees gave the President a positive job approval rating. Pretty much every sub-group gave the president high marks.
On the other hand, former President Trump's job approval numbers were lower than they have been in some time. Overall, 46% of surveyed decision makers approved of Trump (very and somewhat combined), while 50% disapproved (very and somewhat combined), and 4% were no sure.
Former President Trump received his strongest support from business decision makers in the South region (53% at least somewhat approved/45% at least somewhat disapproved) and the Central/Great Lakes region (50% at least somewhat approved/46% at least somewhat disapproved), while he was received less favorably in the West region (32% at least somewhat approved/62% at least somewhat disapproved) and the East region (48% at least somewhat approved/49% at least somewhat disapproved).
Keeping in line with how business decision makers felt about Biden's job performance as president, a majority of surveyed decision makers felt the direction of the country and economy were headed in the right direction, as opposed to the off on the wrong track.
At the moment Biden's popularity with the public, both voters and businesses, is at an all time high. Can he keep the momentum going to pass a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure bill, which will also be accompanied by massive tax hikes on the wealthy? It is going to be a tough road ahead, especially with a brewing crisis at the Mexican border and a very slim majority in Congress. Biden has persevered before in his political career, but the situations brewing on multiple fronts might present a more difficult situation this time around.
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Zogby Analytics Poll Methodology
Business Decision Makers
3/10/21
Zogby Analytics conducted an online survey of 500 business decision makers.
Using internal and trusted interactive partner resources, thousands of adults were randomly invited to participate in this interactive survey. Each invitation is password coded and secure so that one respondent can only access the survey one time.
Using information based on census data, voter registration figures, CIA fact books and exit polls, we use complex weighting techniques to best represent the demographics of the population being surveyed. Weighted variables may include age, race, gender, region, party, education, and religion.
Based on a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error for 500 is +/- 4.4 percentage points. This means that all other things being equal, the identical survey repeated will have results within the margin of error 95 times out of 100.
Subsets of the data have a larger margin of error than the whole data set. As a rule we do not rely on the validity of very small subsets of the data especially sets smaller than 50-75 respondents. At that subset we can make estimations based on the data, but in these cases the data is more qualitative than quantitative.
Additional factors can create error, such as question wording and question order.
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About Zogby Analytics:
Zogby Analytics is respected nationally and internationally for its opinion research capabilities. Since 1984, Zogby has empowered clients with powerful information and knowledge critical for making informed strategic decisions.
The firm conducts multi-phased opinion research engagements for banking and financial services institutions, insurance companies, hospitals and medical centers, retailers and developers, religious institutions, cultural organizations, colleges and universities, IT companies and Federal agencies. Zogby's dedication and commitment to excellence and accuracy are reflected in its state-of-the-art opinion research capabilities and objective analysis and consultation.