By Ashe O

Washington, Sep 8 (IANS): US President Joe Bidens approval rating has bounced back to its highest level, leading his predecessor Donald Trump by six points from its summer time lows, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll has revealed.

Biden is leading Trump in a 2024 rematch by the widest margin since March, the poll said, adding that the presidential run was still years away and did not mean that Biden is the winner.

The survey of 1,634 US adults conducted from September 2-6 immediately after the combative primetime speech in which Biden blasted "Trump and the MAGA Republicans" as "extremists" who "threaten the very foundations of our republic", showed that if the next presidential election "were held today", 48 per cent of registered voters would choose the incumbent, while 42 per cent would choose the former.

Biden's new 6-point lead is 3 points larger than his edge in the previous Yahoo News/YouGov survey from late August (Biden 45 per cent, Trump 42 per cent) and 4 points better than his average lead across all Yahoo News/YouGov surveys conducted between April and July (Biden 44 per cent, Trump 42 per cent).

The poll's margin of error is approximately 2.6 per cent, media reports said.

The last time Biden led Trump in a Yahoo News/YouGov poll by 6 percentage points or more among registered voters was in March 2022 (Biden 47 per cent to Trump 39 per cent). The time before that was in May 2021 (Biden 48 per cent to Trump 39 per cent).

Notably, Biden's support today (48 per cent) matches those previous highs.

None of this means Biden is a lock to defeat Trump in 2024, the survey said adding, the election is still years away, and Trump won in 2016 despite losing the national popular vote (largely because Republican voters tend to live in rural states that are overrepresented in the Electoral College).

Meanwhile, more Americans still disapprove than approve of Biden's performance in office, the poll observed.

But the President's improving numbers against his former (and possibly future) opponent represent a modest sign that he is rebounding from a prolonged summer slump. Possible reasons for his rising popularity include falling gas prices and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which will lower the cost of prescription drugs, electric vehicles and solar panels, among other provisions.

Biden's gains are mainly concentrated on the left, while Republicans remain near unanimous in their opposition to the President and his reforms.

Among all Americans, the President's approval rating now stands at 40 per cent approve (unchanged since late August) to 52 per cent disapprove (down from 53 per cent in late August). Among registered voters, Biden's numbers are 43 per cent and 53 per cent, respectively.

This is the Biden's best showing since May and it's because his approval rating climbed 7 points among Democrats (to 79 per cent) and 6 points among independents (to 32 per cent over the last month, the poll pointed out.

At the same time, more Democrats now say America is "generally headed in the right direction" (48 per cent) than "off on the wrong track" (38 per cent). In early August, those numbers were reversed.

As a result, Biden has strengthened his standing for 2024, which had been looking unusually weak for an incumbent.

Whereas in early August, Democrats and independents who lean Democratic preferred "someone else" over Biden as the Democratic nominee by a 55 per cent to 27 per cent margin, the number who now say they prefer Biden is up 8 points, to 35 per cent, and the number who say they prefer someone else is down 13 points, to 42 per cent.

Among Democrats only, Biden has gained even more ground. He now leads "someone else" by 4 points here (41 per cent to 37 per cent); one month ago, he trailed 29 per cent to 52 per cent.

Likewise, Democrats now say by a 14-point margin that Biden should run again in 2024 (44 per cent yes, 30 per cent no); in early August, more Democrats said he shouldn't (43 per cent) than said he should (35 per cent).

Over the same period, the share of Democrats who believe the president is "up to the challenges facing the US" has increased by 10 points (to 64 per cent).

Meanwhile, Trump has made his own gains recently, mainly because Republicans seem to have rallied round him after the FBI's raid on his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago on August 8.

A full 55 per cent of Republicans and independents who lean Republican now prefer Trump over "someone else" for the party's 2024 nomination, up from 54 per cent in the previous Yahoo News/YouGov survey and 47 per cent in early August.

The poll hastened to add that there were still signs of vulnerability for Trump as new revelations emerge about his handling of highly classified documents.

Less than half of Republicans and Republican leaners now prefer Trump (48 per cent) over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (34 per cent).

A growing number of independents, 39 per cent, up 7 points from two weeks ago, believe Trump would be a weaker candidate in 2024 than in 2020. And a full 55 per cent of Americans say the former president should be barred from serving again in the future if he is found guilty of "mishandling highly classified documents" or "obstructing" the ongoing Justice Department investigation.

Only a quarter of Americans say Trump should be allowed to serve again in that scenario.