Trump gets ahead of Biden on eve of State of the Union address

Former President Donald Trump, a Republican, edged out current President Joe Biden, a Democrat, on the eve of the latter’s planned State of the Union address to Congress this week, according to a poll. .

Trump, at 48%, leads Biden’s 45% by 3%. 1% said they would vote for someone else, 3% said they wouldn’t vote for Trump or Biden, 2% said they wouldn’t vote, and 1% didn’t have a vote. ‘opinion.

The investigation, of Washington Post and ABC News, represents a five-point gap from Trump over the pollster’s last such survey nationwide in September, which had Trump leading 48% to 46%.

The survey polled 1,003 American adults from January 27 to February 1 and has a margin of error of 3.5%.

This means that the poll was fully completed before the public discovered that a suspected surveillance balloon by the Chinese Communist Party – the story broke last Thursday evening, and this poll was completed on Wednesday – was hovering over the continental United States. The ball story has captured national attention, and Republicans have leveled harsh criticism at Biden. Trump himself said he would have shot the ball down much sooner than Biden. The current president allowed the balloon to cross the entire United States before finally shooting it down as it moved over the Atlantic Ocean.

A high-altitude balloon floats over Billings, Montana, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. (Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette via AP)

The poll showing Trump leading Biden before 2024 comes just days before Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night in Congress. Republicans have already torn Biden ahead of the speech, with some like Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) saying they would boycott the president’s speech.

Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The poll also follows news that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — who later served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under President Trump — plans to launch her own GOP presidential campaign in mid-February in Charleston, South Carolina.

Haley’s announcement is the first of several other Republicans expected to take to the field against Trump. Just this weekend, New Hampshire GOP Gov. Chris Sununu said he was also considering his own run. Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis is also reportedly considering running, as are former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among others.

A key talking point that other Republicans running or considering running against Trump is that they argue that Trump would be weaker than any other candidate against Biden in 2024, and that Trump could blast him for the GOP. Sununu made this exact point during an appearance on ABC News This week on Sunday.

But now that polls show Trump leading Biden — including established media polls like this one from Washington Post and ABC News — it’s much harder for other Republicans to deny Trump’s very serious ongoing national popularity. A host of other recent polls have actually shown Trump doing better than DeSantis versus Biden, for example, including a recent Harvard-Harris poll that showed Trump beating Biden by 5 in that poll while DeSantis didn’t. was trailing by only 3. Against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump also outclassed DeSantis, with Trump leading her by 8 points and DeSantis only leading her by 3 points.