Voters Say Biden More Honest, Trump Is More Mentally Sharp

U.S. President Joe Biden has had a tough time of late, with a string of slip-ups casting doubt in the minds of many on his readiness to take on a second term of presidency. At the NATO summit yesterday, a particularly unfortunate incident occurred when he mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”. With stakes high and the media doubling down on such errors, a number of heads of state have come to his aid, voicing their support for the incumbent U.S. leader - including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Meanwhile, a growing number of elected Democrats as well as actor George Clooney have said that Biden should step aside. 

At the start of July, even before the latest debacle, Pew Research Center asked U.S. adults to share their views in a survey on Trump and Biden. As the following chart shows, only 24 percent of respondents said they would describe Biden as “mentally sharp”. Where Trump outperformed Biden on this metric with 58 percent of respondents saying the same, he scored lower on the characteristics of honesty and caring about ordinary people’s needs. Some 64 percent of respondents also said they would describe Trump as “mean-spirited”, more than twice the share of people who would describe Biden as the same. However, a character flaw that a majority of voters agreed described both candidates was “embarrassing”, with an evenly matched 63 percent of respondents saying this about each.

Polls for the presidential race have been neck-and-neck, with the latest data indicating results could lean towards Trump, following Biden’s poor debate performance two weeks ago.