Topline
President Joe Biden said Wednesday he “would not be disappointed” to face former President Donald Trump again in the 2024 election, despite recent polling data suggesting a majority of Americans don’t want either candidate to run again.
Biden speaks at a presidential debate with Trump in September 2020.
Key Facts
Asked by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 if he’s expecting a rematch with Trump, Biden said he’s “not predicting” that, though he’d welcome the rematch.
However, polls show a lack of popularity for either candidate for a second presidential term: just 29% of Americans want Biden to run in 2024 and 39% want Trump, according to a Harvard University’s Center for American Political Studies and Harris Insight and Analytics poll released earlier this month.
Biden and Trump’s support is thin even within their respective parties, as about two-thirds of Democrats don’t want Biden to run for re-election and about half of Republicans prefer a candidate other than Trump in 2024, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released this week.
Key Background
Biden’s comments come on the first day of his first visit to the Middle East as president where he will seek to deepen diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel established during the Trump Administration, according to CNN. Biden will visit Saudi Arabia this week in a move widely criticized considering his 2020 promise to make the country a “pariah” over the government’s involvement in the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The White House said Biden will lobby for increased oil production while in Saudi Arabia, an effort to bring down elevated gas prices domestically contributing to a four-decade inflation high and dragging on Biden’s popularity. Biden’s average approval rating is 38.8%, up slightly from a record low reached earlier this month, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling index. Trump leads Biden by five points in a hypothetical rematch, according to an Emerson College poll released July 1.
Tangent
Many point to the 79-year-old Biden and the 76-year-old Trump’s advanced age as a reason they shouldn’t run in 2024. Among those critics are the world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk, who tweeted Monday “it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset” and said the maximum age for a president-elect should be 69 years old. Biden and Trump are the two oldest presidents ever at the time of their inaugurations, beginning their terms at 78 and 70 years old, respectively.
Further Reading
Nearly Half Of Republicans Don’t Want Trump As President In 2024, Poll Suggests (Forbes)
Nearly 2 Out 3 Democrats Don’t Want Biden As 2024 Presidential Candidate, Poll Finds (Forbes)
Most Americans Don’t Want Biden Or Trump To Run Again, Poll Finds (Forbes)
Trump Leads Biden By 5 Points In Hypothetical 2024 Presidential Poll (Forbes)
